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Success with languages

Learning a new language is exciting but can be a daunting prospect. You may not have studied for some time, lack confidence, or simply wish for some practical guidance on making the most of your
…

Learning a new language is exciting but can be a daunting prospect. You may not have studied for some time, lack confidence, or simply wish for some practical guidance on making the most of your language study. Success with Languages is designed to help you to develop the skills you need to become an effective language learner.

- and check this : http://gotgamecheats.net/file/0Td4I
for The A-Z of Correct English Common Errors in English.pdf

Transcript

1.
Success with Languages
Learning a new language is exciting but can be a daunting prospect. You
may not have studied for some time, lack conﬁdence, or simply wish for
some practical guidance on making the most of your language study. Success
with Languages is designed to help you to develop the skills you need to
become an effective language learner.
Written by experienced teachers of languages at the Open University,
this book offers practical advice and support in such key areas as:
•
•
•
•
•
choosing your language and study programme
becoming an effective learner
setting personal goals for language learning
monitoring your progress
using ICT to support your language learning.
Each of the ten chapters contains a number of activities which give you
the opportunity to try out different ideas and suggestions for improving
your learning and language skills.
While designed primarily for students in adult, further and higher
education studying a language or a course that includes a language component, this study guide is relevant to anyone learning a language in any
situation. Whatever your motivation and goals, this book will help you to
realize your potential and gain access to new cultures, peoples and their
heritage.
Stella Hurd is a Senior Lecturer and Linda Murphy is a Staff Tutor in the
Department of Languages at the Open University, UK.

2.
The Open University offers language courses in French, German and
Spanish from beginner to degree level. Its specially designed materials and
unique method of study enable you to learn in your own time with the
support of a personal tutor and optional face-to-face or online tutorials.
Our courses are designed to develop language skills for the real world as
well as encouraging an understanding of the cultures, history and other
aspects of life in the countries whose language you are learning. For more
details visit our website at http://www.open.ac.uk/courses

5.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
1 Language learning and language learners
Tim Lewis, Christine Pleines and Stella Hurd
Why learn a language as an adult?
Which language to choose?
What does learning a language involve?
How far do you want to take it?
What do you hope to get out of your language learning?
What sort of a learner are you?
Individual differences
Self-awareness
Learner independence
Modes of study
Opportunities and providers
How to use this book
Summary of key points
2 Getting started
Annie Eardley, Helga Adams and Margaret Nicolson
Choosing the right course
Importance of past experience
Matching your requirements with what the course offers
Choosing your starting level
Amount of contact with the language
Placement and diagnostic tests
Choosing and organizing your learning resources
Dictionaries, grammar books
xii
xv
1
1
3
4
7
9
10
10
11
14
14
15
17
19
21
21
21
22
22
22
22
25
25

6.
vi
Contents
VCR and DVD players
CD players and cassette recorders
Computers
Organizing your physical resources
Where to study
Study environment
Storage and ﬁling
Working with and around friends and family
Managing your time
Making the best use of your time
Low and high concentration times
Establishing priorities and making selections
Opportunities for study
Keeping records
Summary of key points
3 Becoming an effective learner
Margaret Nicolson, Helga Adams, Concha Furnborough,
Lina Adinolﬁ and Mike Truman
25
25
25
26
26
27
27
28
28
30
30
31
32
33
34
35
Learning on your own
Learning with others
Learning with others in a language classroom
Studying independently
Building on previous experience
Making use of prior knowledge
Developing skills to help you learn
Making and keeping notes
Different ways of making notes
Using a dictionary
Dictionary features
Developing strategies to improve your learning
Knowing how to prepare yourself
Maintaining your conﬁdence
Working with model answers and keys
Taking risks and learning from mistakes
The advantages of risk-taking
Developing an independent approach and taking
responsibility
Summary of key points
35
36
37
38
39
40
42
42
43
48
48
50
51
53
55
55
56
4 Reﬂection and self-evaluation
Linda Murphy, Mirjam Hauck, Margaret Nicolson, and
Helga Adams
60
What does reﬂection mean?
58
59
60

7.
Contents
vii
Developing awareness
Awareness of yourself as a language learner
Awareness of the context in which you are learning
Awareness of features of the language you are learning
How the language sounds
Word formation and sentence patterns
The social and cultural role of the language
Monitoring your progress
Keeping a learner diary or learning log
Using checklists
Using the language you have learned
Assessing your strengths and weaknesses: setting goals
Deﬁning your priorities in order to draw up an action plan
Reviewing your goals
Developing good learning habits
Personal development planning
Summary of key points
61
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
67
68
70
71
73
75
76
76
78
5 Developing competence in the language (1): reading and
listening skills
Felicity Harper, Pete Smith and Tita Beaven
79
Being a reﬂective learner in the context of reading and
listening
What do reading and listening involve?
Reading and listening as processes
What do reading and listening have in common and how
do they differ?
Why do we read or listen and what material do we choose?
Reading
Listening
How reading and listening are approached in coursebooks
Reading or listening for information
Exposure to new styles, vocabulary and linguistic practice
Before and after you read or listen
Active reading and listening
Prior knowledge of the topic, vocabulary and type of
material
Prior knowledge of commonly used words and phrases
Using clues and exercises to aid comprehension
Making predictions
Hypothesis-testing
Strategies for understanding written material
Becoming familiar with the sound of the language
Reconciling sound and spelling of the target language
79
80
80
81
83
83
85
86
87
88
89
90
90
91
91
91
92
92
94
94

9.
Contents
Beginning with the basics: a beginning, middle and end
Awareness of audience and purpose
Speaking and writing from notes
Making notes to organize your thoughts
Using your notes
Incorporating language from other sources into your
speech or writing
Delivering oral presentations
Making your speech and writing ﬂow
Keeping to the point and presenting a coherent argument
Using ‘discourse markers’ to help your audience ﬁnd their
way through
Style and register
Style
Register
Evaluating your writing and speaking
Summary of key points
7 The world as a classroom
James A. Coleman and Uwe Baumann
Why use real-life materials?
A few principles
Television and video
Getting started
Types of TV broadcast
Working with video clips of all kinds
Predicting with and without sound
Predicting with a partner
Predicting headlines and what happens next
Using video for speaking practice
Other active ways of using video
Radio and other audio
Radio
Types of radio broadcast
Audio books
Newspapers and magazines
Books
The Internet
People are resources too!
Other resources
Embassies and institutes
Clubs and associations
Libraries
Summary of key points
ix
127
127
130
130
132
132
133
134
134
134
136
136
137
138
139
140
140
141
146
146
146
149
149
149
150
150
150
152
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
159
159
159
160

10.
x
Contents
8 Using ICT to support your language learning
Lesley Shield, Klaus-Dieter Rossade, Fernando Rosell-Aguilar
and Tita Beaven
Types of ICT to support language learning
Using electronic resources in your studies
Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) materials
Advantages and disadvantages of CALL materials
The Web
What sorts of resources are available on the Web for
language learners?
Finding materials and resources on the Web
Evaluating Web materials and resources
Publishing your own material on the Web
E-books
Electronic dictionaries and grammars
Concordancers
Using productivity tools in your studies
Word-processing
Presentation tools
Spreadsheets, databases and referencing tools
Using CMC in your studies
Types of CMC
Communicating in text
Audiographic conferencing
Instant messaging
Summary of key points
9 Assessment
Concha Furnborough, Annette Duensing and Mike Truman
The purpose of assessment
Assessment for accreditation, to gain a qualiﬁcation
Assessment to help you with your learning
Formative and summative assessment
How are you going to be assessed?
When will you be assessed?
Who will assess you?
What tasks constitute the assessment?
Doing an assignment
Preparing an assignment
Completing your assignment
Getting your assignment back
Making the most of marked assignments
Corrections and what they can tell you
How to work with corrected assignments
161
161
162
162
163
165
165
166
169
170
170
171
172
172
173
175
176
177
177
179
180
183
184
185
185
186
187
187
188
188
188
191
196
196
199
201
201
201
202

11.
Contents
Using feedback to become a better language learner
Maintaining a positive attitude: coping with setbacks
Keeping positive: some solutions
Examinations: How can I make sure I do my best in an exam?
What makes an exam different from assignments?
Work throughout the year
Revision
Trial run
On the day
Summary of key points
10 Making the most of support
Annie Eardley and Cecilia Garrido
Making the most of support from your tutor or language
adviser
The role of tutors and language advisers
Seeking and using support
Contacting your tutor
Making the most of support from your fellow students
Practising your oral skills
Mutual support and encouragement
Study buddies and groups
Making the most of support from friends and family
Making the most of support in the workplace
Beneﬁts of languages in the workplace
Support from employer
Support from work colleagues
Support from careers advice services
Making the most of support from other speakers of the
language
TANDEM learning
Local resident speakers of the language
Visiting the country
Putting your learning into practice
Summary of key points
Glossary
Index
xi
203
206
207
209
209
209
210
211
212
212
214
214
214
215
217
217
218
219
219
221
222
222
222
223
223
223
223
224
225
226
227
228
232

12.
Preface
Whether you are studying a language independently, attending classes or
a mixture of both, Success with Languages provides an ideal support for all
aspects of your language learning. The book is divided into ten chapters,
each of which covers a specific area of importance for adult language
learners. There are also practical tasks throughout the book which are
designed to help you think about the way you learn and how you might
improve it.
Chapter 1 considers what learning a language as an adult involves, and
helps you ﬁnd out what type of learner you are, which learning style suits
you best and why this self-knowledge is important. Chapter 2 gives
practical suggestions for setting up your study area and organizing your
resources so that you can access them easily. It also contains sections
on keeping effective records, establishing your priorities and managing
your time. Chapter 3 offers ideas to help you learn effectively, including
guidance in making notes for different purposes, using mind maps, flow
charts and dictionaries. It also gives suggestions for strategies to improve
your learning, including developing an independent approach and taking
responsibility. In Chapter 4 you can ﬁnd out how to become more aware
of the language and of yourself as a language learner, and also how to assess
your strengths and weaknesses, monitor your progress, set and review your
own goals. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss ways of developing competence in
reading, listening, speaking and writing in the foreign language and suggest
strategies for developing these skills. Chapter 7 shows you what real-life
resources are available to you, and how you can use them to build your
conﬁdence and improve your language proﬁciency. In Chapter 8 you learn
about the role information and communications technology can play in
supporting your language learning. Chapter 9 deals with issues to do with
course work and exams and the important role of feedback. ‘Making the
most of support’ is the title of Chapter 10, the ﬁnal chapter, which invites
you to consider the variety of sources of support available to you as a
language learner.

13.
Preface
xiii
How much of the book is relevant to you, and when you should use it,
will depend on your own particular circumstances and personal goals. You
may decide to work systematically through each chapter or dip in as you
see ﬁt. You can use it in whatever way suits you best.
You will ﬁnd a glossary of terms used throughout the book before the
index.

14.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the following people for their invaluable critical
comments which have had a signiﬁcant inﬂuence on the development and
shaping of this book: Kate Beeching (University of the West of England);
Ruth Pilkington (University of Central Lancashire); Bob Powell
(University of Warwick); and our OU colleagues: Jean Adams, Lina
Adinolﬁ, Inma Álvarez, Carolyn Batstone, Uwe Baumann, Tita Beaven,
Graham Bishop, Neil Broadbent, Jim Coleman, Valérie Demouy, Matilde
Gallardo, Cecilia Garrido, Regine Hampel, Felicity Harper, Barbara Heins,
Sarah Heiser, Tim Lewis, Margaret Nicolson, Christine Pleines, Margaret
Southgate, Mike Truman. A special thanks also to those who kindly contributed examples in different languages to add to those of our authors and
to Lucy Byrne for her excellent secretarial assistance.

15.
1
Language learning and
language learners
Tim Lewis, Christine Pleines and Stella Hurd
Welcome to the world of language learning! This book is intended for
people studying a new language. It is aimed at learners in adult, further and
higher education, but is also relevant to anyone learning a language in
any situation. Whether you are completely new to language learning or
have been learning for a while, you will obviously want to make a success
of it. You may be following a course leading to a qualiﬁcation, or learning
entirely on your own with the help of audio-visual materials. Alternatively,
you may be living abroad and looking for ways to get the most out of your
environment in order to help you learn the language. Whatever your
reason for learning and your chosen method, this book should help you
to achieve your goals. Learning a new language as an adult is an exciting
prospect which opens windows on other cultures, their people and how
they live and think, the history of these countries, their literature, music
and heritage. This book aims to keep alive that sense of excitement while
giving you practical help and guidance in all aspects of language learning.
You will find the terms ‘L2’ (second language) and ‘target language’
throughout the book. Both these terms refer to the language you are
studying as opposed to your mother tongue which is often referred to as
‘L1’ (ﬁrst language).
WHY LEARN A LANGUAGE AS AN ADULT?
To start with, take a little time to think about your reasons for learning
another language and what you hope to achieve.

16.
2
Success with Languages
Task 1.1 Learning a new language: why, what and how
Note down some ideas in answer to the following questions:
Why do I want to learn another language?
What do I want to be able to do in my new language?
How do I want to learn?
Comment
It is important to take time to consider these questions, not just now, but also
from time to time in the course of your study, because the reasons you have
for learning a language will determine the kind of tasks you want to be able to
carry out in your chosen language. These in turn will shape what and how you
learn, the skills you want to develop, the strategies you use and so on. There
is a link, in other words, between:
᭿
᭿
᭿
your reasons for studying a language;
what you want to be able to do with the language;
what and how you learn.
The clearer you are about these three things and the connection between
them, the more likely it is that you will stay motivated, be an effective
and successful learner and fulfil the aspirations you had when you started
learning.
Your reasons for learning a language may be largely practical:
• You want to be able to book hotels or concert tickets, order meals and
buy things in shops and markets in a country you visit. This might
include checking whether a hotel abroad charges extra for single-room
occupancy or whether a concert hall has wheelchair access.
• Your work may involve dealing with speakers of another language.
• Proﬁciency in another language may help you advance your career, or
gain promotion.
• You may live abroad or be planning to move abroad, and need to deal
with estate agents, lawyers, tradespeople and the authorities.
Or they may be more personal or prompted by interest in the world around
you:
• You may not have had the opportunity to learn a language at school
and wish to make up for that now.

17.
Language learning and language learners
3
• You may have had a difﬁcult time learning languages at school and be
determined to ‘have another go’.
• You may want to be able to communicate with people from other
countries for a variety of reasons, e.g. if you have a disability, you may
wish to keep in touch with people across the world who have the same
disability as yourself.
• You may want to learn (or relearn) the language of your parents if the
language you mainly use differs from theirs.
• You may want to learn a language for pleasure or intellectual stimulation: for example to be able to read literature, or watch ﬁlms in your
chosen language.
• You may want to understand the language of the country (or countries)
you visit during holidays abroad.
• You may feel that learning a language will enable you to understand
better the countries and cultures in which it is used.
All of these are sound reasons for learning a language. They often overlap
with and reinforce one another, and you may well ﬁnd in the course of your
learning that you develop new reasons for learning and ways of keeping
yourself motivated that you hadn’t thought of originally.
Which language to choose?
If your motivation for studying a language is not based purely on academic
grounds, such as enabling you to read a text in the original version, you
will need to consider which language to choose. Do you opt for the
language you have studied unsuccessfully at school or for a language you
have no notion of at all, in order to gain insight into a culture you are
unfamiliar with? Some people are attracted to the music and rhythm of a
particular language. Others feel frustrated at not being able to pronounce
certain sounds which are unfamiliar to them in their mother tongue. Each
language has its own characteristics, some of which will attract you more
than others.
Success in language learning and all that comes with it can differ from
person to person, but research suggests that you are more likely to be a
successful learner: (a) if you have a genuine interest in the country or
community whose language you are learning, and (b) if you feel you are
making progress in learning the language. These are both associated with
the idea of self-awareness, in other words beginning to get to know more
about yourself as a learner, what it is you are hoping to achieve and what
you need to concentrate on in particular in order to reach your personal
goals.
You may be learning for pleasure, or for more vocational purposes, or it
may be a mixture of both. Task 1.2 asks you to focus in more detail on all
your reasons for taking up the language, and which are the most important.

18.
4
Success with Languages
Task 1.2 Reﬁning your reasons
You may now wish to reconsider and ﬁne-tune the ﬁrst question in Task 1.1:
Why am I learning this particular language? and maybe add to your previous
answer.
If you have a number of reasons, try to rank them in order of importance. This
will help you concentrate on what is important to you.
WHAT DOES LEARNING A LANGUAGE INVOLVE?
Within the broad field of Second Language Acquisition theory, some
scholars stress the key role of internal factors in learning a language, such
as the innate capacity human beings appear to have for grasping the
structure of language. Others stress the importance of our interaction with
the world of language around us. Second Language Acquisition theory also
draws on other disciplines, such as linguistics, psychology and increasingly
information-processing, to explain what is involved in language learning.
This all makes for a fascinatingly rich mix of ideas, insight and argument,
but, as yet, no one has a complete explanation of what takes place when
you learn a language.
Nonetheless, learning a foreign language does appear to differ from the
study of other subjects, in that it involves not just learning something new,
but also using that knowledge to communicate. This entails both conscious learning of language forms and spontaneous and natural use of the
language.
The basic unit for conveying meaning in a language is the word. Among
the questions you should ask yourself as a learner are which words you need
to learn and how they are best learned. It may help to know that the 1,000
or so most frequently occurring words in a language will meet roughly
three-quarters of your communicative needs. There are several effective
ways in which you can expand the number of words you are able to use in
the target language. One common technique is to memorize new vocabulary by jotting down new words and their translations. Once you have
been learning for a while, reading can also help you to acquire vocabulary,
provided that the texts tackled are not too difﬁcult. Some other techniques
are also thought to be particularly useful in vocabulary development. One
is inferring or guessing the meaning of a word from its context. Another
is using a dictionary in order to (1) identify or confirm the meaning of
an unfamiliar word and (2) explore the meaning of the various terms that
are related to it. Words come in families, and understanding the family
relationship can be of great help in expanding both your comprehension
and your ability to express yourself.

19.
Language learning and language learners
5
Grammar is the name given to the patterns followed by the smaller units
of language (e.g. words) as they combine to form larger units (e.g. sentences). These patterns are often described in terms of ‘rules’, but such rules
are actually based on descriptions of the way in which a language is used
by most of those who have grown up using it. Grammar distributes words
into categories (e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives). It also distinguishes between
the role they play, in relation to one another, within a sentence (e.g.
subject, verb, object). Grammar also charts the systematic ways in which
words change their form when combined with other words to form larger
units. The way in which grammar structures the language also has an
impact on meaning. Consider the two sentences:
The man bites the dog.
The dog bites the man.
Both use exactly the same words. But the grammatical relationship between
them is different. So too is the meaning of the two sentences. Learning
grammar is therefore clearly important and not merely for structural
reasons. It is probably best tackled by using the language as much as
you can, for communicating and carrying out practical tasks, while at the
same time paying attention to the structures you are meeting and using.
Chapter 6, ‘Accuracy and fluency’, gives ideas for improving both
grammatical accuracy and ﬂuency. There are also books available which
explain grammatical terms in English for English learners of other
languages (see the series English Grammar for Students of . . . Hodder
Education).
In addition to gathering and processing information, learning to use
another language involves acquiring and practising four main skills:
reading, listening, writing and speaking. The last two of these often strike
learners as more difficult to master, because they involve putting into
practice knowledge you may only recently have acquired. Your reasons
for learning a language will determine which of these skills are of most
value to you. If, for example, your main aim is to undertake work-based
correspondence on behalf of an employer, you will put the emphasis on
reading and writing. If, however, you just want to be able to converse with
people you meet on holiday, your interest will lie in understanding and
using the spoken language. However, all four skills are interconnected and
developing one of them often results in greater proﬁciency in using another.
Chapters 5 and 6 deal with developing competence in the four language
skills.
However, learning a language goes beyond the acquisition of the four
skills. It also implies gaining a genuine understanding of the culture(s)
of the people who speak it. Speakers of the target language often easily
‘forgive’ linguistic inaccuracies; lack of cultural awareness could be more
difﬁcult to accept. Becoming competent in engaging with other cultures

20.
6
Success with Languages
requires taking a genuine interest in discovering the customs and other
various manifestations of the culture, including what interests and worries
its members. It also involves reﬂecting on the other culture as well as on
your own, and being aware of the attitudes and preconceptions you may
have.
Task 1.3 Developing language skills
Take a little time to think about and answer this question:
Which skill(s) do I want to develop and for what purpose?
If you want to develop more than one skill, try to rank them in order of their
importance to you.
Comment
Thinking about the different skills and their particular importance to you as a
language learner will keep you focused in your learning and also help you to
work out the areas you need to work on in particular.
As an adult, you will be used to expressing quite complex ideas and
concepts. When you are learning a foreign language, there is a mismatch
between the complexity of the ideas you want to express and the language
you have available to do so. This can be quite frustrating. So try to be aware
of this difference and say things in a simpler way. Many complex concepts
can be expressed in simple words. Don’t be embarrassed when you make
mistakes. When people speak in their ﬁrst language they also make mistakes and speak ungrammatically. Making mistakes is part of the learning
process and research into language learning increasingly suggests that being
aware that you are making them is a healthy sign. It indicates that you
are developing your own understanding of the grammar of the foreign
language.
Learning a language as an adult has a number of positive aspects,
compared with learning as a child. You will have a vastly superior
knowledge of your mother tongue in terms of the vocabulary you have
already acquired and will probably also know a lot more about how
languages work. This will help you to make short cuts and learn more
effectively. You will be able to work out for yourself which of several
approaches to memorizing vocabulary and structures and learning
grammatical rules works best for you, and consciously select the most useful
strategy for different situations. You are intellectually mature, know more
about the world and have almost certainly developed sound analytical,

21.
Language learning and language learners
7
problem-solving and organizational skills in other contexts. It is no surprise,
therefore, that many adult learners become highly successful communicators in a new language.
A key to learning a foreign language is the amount of exposure you have
to it. Using the language on a daily basis will enable you to make more
rapid progress towards mastering it in the speciﬁc contexts in which you
wish to use it. You should do what you can to maximize your exposure to
the target language, by reading newspapers, surfing websites, listening
to the radio and watching ﬁlms and television (see Chapter 7). But above
all, it is interaction with native, or competent speakers, which is likely to
stimulate both the development of your language skills and your awareness
of how members of the L2 culture think. How easy such contact is to
achieve will depend on your situation. Seeking out native speakers to
converse with means overcoming shyness or lack of conﬁdence. But the
beneﬁts are beyond dispute. And you may well ﬁnd that they too are very
keen to exchange conversation with you and ﬁnd out a little more about
you and your culture.
HOW FAR DO YOU WANT TO TAKE IT?
How far you wish to take your language learning depends entirely on you
and of course any personal constraints you may have, particularly relating
to the time you have available, but also the degree of access you have to
resources and facilities. You may wish to master just the basics of the
language, in order to be able to communicate in straightforward, everyday
situations, and leave it at that. On the other hand, you may want to aim
for high levels of language competence. In short, you can achieve a great
deal if you are prepared to put in the time and practice. Keep in mind that
even a short period of learning can produce striking gains in your ability
to communicate, while a lifetime’s familiarity with a second language and
its culture will still leave you with more to learn. There are many examples
of adult learners who have started with modest aspirations but, having
achieved their original goals, have decided to set their sights higher. This
is often because they ﬁnd they are really enjoying learning a language, but
also because they ﬁnd themselves becoming much more conﬁdent about
their own abilities.
Often as learners we set out with unrealistic assumptions, some of
which may be fostered by the advertising employed by some providers
of language learning, along the lines of ‘Learn a language in three weeks!’.
It is important to be realistic about what you can achieve in the time that
you have, in order to keep focused and stay motivated when the going gets
tough. Motivation is one of the keys to successful language learning
and you will need to think about what keeps you personally on track.
Do you tend to take setbacks in your stride or are you easily discouraged?

22.
8
Success with Languages
Don’t be overambitious at the outset. Try splitting your overall aim into
achievable next steps. Review your achievements and consider what your
future goals are.
Task 1.4 Keeping motivated: steps towards reaching
your goals
Think about the following questions:
What are my main learning goals? (E.g. (a) very speciﬁc: I want to be able
to get a French qualiﬁcation for working abroad; (b) more general: I want to
be able to understand and talk to my grandchildren who only speak Russian,
but I’ve no time to attend a class; or (c) concentrating on a particular aspect:
I’m OK on the grammar, but I want to improve my accent in German.)
What steps do I need to achieve on the way to reaching them?
What is likely to help keep me motivated?
Comment
You may have found this task easy if you have been clear from the outset
about what you want to achieve. On the other hand, it may have taken you
some time to work out how to break down your general goals into shorter
manageable ones. If you can do this you will have a much greater chance of
reaching the larger goals. In relation to the examples in the ﬁrst question, you
might consider the following:
a
b
c
Join the French conversation class at work and ﬁnd out about the qualiﬁcations available; aim to spend an hour a day on my studies.
Look for a course that doesn’t require class attendance; learn 10 new words
each week; say hello to my grandchildren in Russian on the phone or in an
email as soon as I have enough words.
Listen to German radio on the Internet for 15 minutes three times a week;
choose 10 words that I frequently hear and try to imitate the sounds.
Small achievements can really help to keep you motivated and it is important
to think regularly about how you feel you are getting on, and if necessary review
what you can realistically achieve. Chapter 4 deals with this in much more detail.
You will have your own ideas as to what works for you personally in addition to
our suggestions. Making the most of any opportunities to hear or use the
language will help maintain your interest and enjoyment, e.g. TV and radio
programmes, ﬁlms, meeting with other speakers of the language, local language
groups, etc.

23.
Language learning and language learners
9
If you are particularly motivated by the prospect of gaining a qualiﬁcation, you should check what qualiﬁcation, if any, your preferred course
leads to, before committing yourself to enrolling. If you have a disability,
you may also want to check if there are any special arrangements for
assessment. For all-round learners seeking what is essentially an academic
qualification, a course preparing for a GCSE, Standard Grade or Intermediate Certiﬁcate (or A level/Higher/Leaving Certiﬁcate) is probably the
most suitable. Those wishing to gain accreditation for professional language
skills may ﬁnd qualiﬁcations from the following awarding bodies ﬁt their
needs:
• The Oxford, Cambridge and RSA examinations (OCR) offers a
Certificate in Business Language Competence in French, German,
Italian and Spanish, at three levels, which correspond to NVQ1, NVQ2
and NVQ3. The same qualiﬁcation is offered in Russian and Japanese
at Level 1 only.
http://www.ocr.org.uk/OCR/WebSite/docroot/index.jsp
• The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry Examinations Board
(LCCIEB) offers French, German and Spanish for Business at three
levels, plus a preliminary level.
http://www.churchillhouse.com/en-lcci.html
• The Institute of Linguists
http://www.iol.org.uk/qualiﬁcations/exams.asp
• The French Institute offers accreditation through the Paris Chamber
of Commerce. The Diplôme de français des affaires (DFA1 and DFA2)
is also available in a number of UK centres.
http://www.ﬁaf.org/school/exams.htm
http://www.france-langue.fr/en_11_paris.php
WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO GET OUT OF YOUR
LANGUAGE LEARNING?
Learning a new language can bring some very rapid beneﬁts. For a start,
it can dispel the sense of isolation and helplessness associated with an
environment where every one else is using a language you simply do not
understand. Even the ability to understand a few words of the language will
help you make sense of notices, menus, short newspaper articles and other
simple everyday texts and help you feel more at ease. You may just want to
be able to chat with a neighbour who comes from another country in their
own language. On the other hand, you may have always wanted to be able
to understand Wagner operas or French chansons, or read García Lorca in
the original. The willingness to use another language at whatever level
often makes its native speakers better disposed towards you, and having
some competence in another language will almost certainly give you an

24.
10
Success with Languages
insight into the way the speakers of that language think. As well as giving
you privileged access to another set of cultural attitudes, you may ﬁnd there
are other, more personal, beneﬁts, for example, the capacity to think more
ﬂexibly, by offering you alternative ways of viewing the world and thinking
about life.
Task 1.5 Other beneﬁts of language learning
See if you can list a few outcomes you would like from your language learning
in addition to the general goal of achieving a speciﬁc level of competence and/or
gaining a qualiﬁcation.
Even a small amount of success in communicating in a foreign language
is likely to raise your levels of conﬁdence and your self-esteem. Language
learners who have attained a reasonable level of ﬂuency often report that
when speaking the foreign language, they assume a different, more worldly,
persona than in their native tongue. Becoming ﬂuent in another language
may help you to grow, in a number of ways, but above all as a person. That
is not perhaps the main reason why most people start learning, but it is a
beneﬁt that language learners often report as a welcome, if unexpected,
outcome.
WHAT SORT OF A LEARNER ARE YOU?
Individual differences
Learners differ in many ways. Their expectations of language learning, for
example, are inﬂuenced by past experience. Task 1.6 offers some statements
which reflect some of the many different starting points for learning a
language. Whichever comments reﬂect the way you feel, this book offers
you some guidance on how to proceed and helps you ﬁnd ways of learning
which meet your expectations and requirements.
Task 1.6 Different types of learner
Consider which of the following statements apply to you:
᭿
I’ve never learned a foreign language before and am not sure what to
expect.

25.
Language learning and language learners
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
11
I learned another language at school, but never used it much. I’m now not
sure how to start again.
I’m good at language learning and want to achieve a higher level than I have
at the moment.
I enjoy language learning and want to ﬁnd the most effective ways of making
progress.
I used to enjoy language learning but have forgotten almost everything.
I ﬁnd learning a foreign language quite hard because of my disability, but I
need it (for example because of my job or because of family living abroad).
I really would like to speak another language but ﬁnd it difﬁcult.
I enjoy using the foreign language when abroad and now want to learn it
‘properly’.
Differences between individual learners are, of course, not limited to
their expectations and the kinds of ‘baggage’ they bring along, but, to put
it very simply, different people learn in different ways. Consider, for
example, the following quotation from a biography of the German
politician Willy Brandt. His wife writes about their visits abroad:
W [Willy Brandt] mocked my way of learning languages – armed with
dictionary and grammar book. He was a bit of a parrot. He disliked the
written word; listening was enough for him.
Brandt and his wife clearly represent opposite ends of the spectrum of
language learning: some learners prefer to acquire languages naturally,
while others need to rely on explanations and explicit knowledge of rules.
Most learners will fall somewhere in between. Indeed, adults often learn
best when they have access to both exposure to ‘real’ language and the
kinds of explanations and reinforcement provided in language classrooms
and textbooks.
Self-awareness
Awareness of yourself as a learner and of the differences between learners
are important when setting out to study a language. Your tutor (if you have
one) may also be aware of and, quite possibly, cater for different learner
types. Nevertheless it is better to be well informed yourself rather than
assume that someone else will take care of your individual needs.
Knowing how you learn will help you to get the most out of language
study and is invaluable for organizing your learning. Research conducted
with distance learners (i.e. learners who are enrolled at an institution, but
do most of their studying at home without attending face-to-face tuition)
has produced some interesting results. Those new to learning outside the

26.
12
Success with Languages
classroom attach relatively little importance to ‘knowing how you learn’
whereas more experienced learners recognize it as one of the most important factors, second only to ‘motivation’. Other studies have concentrated
on the characteristics of successful language learners and, again, having
insight into your own learning styles and preferences and taking an active
approach to the learning task feature prominently.
Task 1.7 will start you off on the process of thinking about how you learn
best.
Task 1.7 Learning preferences
Read through the sentences below and decide the extent to which they apply
to you.
Deﬁnitely
applies
1 I like to see the language written
down.
2 I need to hear the language
spoken.
3 I ﬁnd it helpful to see pictures that
illustrate what I’m learning.
4 I learn best when I can actually
handle the objects I’m learning
about.
5 I like to make a note of everything
I think is important.
6 I often copy out my initial notes in
order to organize them in a
different way.
7 I like to read texts out loud.
8 I make lists of words and phrases.
9 I invent situations in which I would
use the language.
Sometimes
applies
Does not
apply

27.
Language learning and language learners
13
Task 1.7 continued
Deﬁnitely
applies
Sometimes
applies
Does not
apply
10 I make tables in which I organize
the grammar I’m trying to learn.
11 I need to understand the rules of
the language.
12 I repeat phrases many times in
order to learn them.
13 I like to immerse myself in the
foreign language.
14 I learn best when talking to people.
15 In a classroom, I enjoy moving
about and working on different
tasks with different people, e.g.
role-plays.
Some of the sentences are about your preferred way of processing information, which may be:
• visual: you prefer to see everything written down or look at pictures (1,
3, 5, 6);
• auditory: you need to hear the language spoken (2, 7, 12, 13, 14); or
• tactile: you prefer hands-on learning (4);
• kinaesthetic: you like learning that involves physical responses (15).
Other sentences describe either:
• a more analytical learner, who likes to analyse the different elements of
the language (6, 8, 10, 11); or
• a more holistic learner, who likes to hear and use or practise the language
in context (9, 13, 14, 15).
It is useful to know which works best for you; very often, a combination
of several methods will lead to better learning. Your preference for
particular ways of processing information and structuring your learning
may change, and it is worth reassessing these from time to time. The idea
of distinguishing between ‘learner types’ is not to put you in a category
once and for all.

28.
14
Success with Languages
Learner independence
Whatever type of learner you are, the most important thing is that you are
the one who controls what and how you are learning. For example, if you
like grammar tables, it is more helpful to create your own than simply to
rely on the ones presented in books. If you like to learn through repetition,
it is better for you to choose the phrases that are important to you rather
than let someone else choose for you.
You will also find that it is not enough to ‘accumulate’ phrases or
structures (for example by writing them down or repeating them after
listening to a recording). You have to make active use of them, even if it
is just by having conversations in your head. Otherwise you may ﬁnd that
you very quickly forget the language you have learned. Chapter 6 contains
information on activating your vocabulary and using your language in
speaking and writing.
Throughout this book you will come across many different techniques
and strategies for enhancing your language learning. Trying them out will
help you ﬁnd out more about what kind of a learner you are and enable
you to select a learning style that suits you.
MODES OF STUDY
Languages can be learned in many different ways. What sort of a learner
you are and what you want from a language course will influence your
decision on what kind of programme to follow. Two distinct approaches
to study are independent and classroom-based learning. There are, of
course, many subdivisions within the two approaches, and often learning
will involve more than one mode: for example classroom-based study is
normally supplemented by more independent learning at home. It is not
enough to rely solely on the time you spend listening to and practising
language in a classroom. Successful progress in classroom-based study
should be complemented by periods of independent study between classes
and therefore provide you with good learning habits once the course comes
to an end.
Task 1.8 Choosing the kind of tuition that suits you
Here are some considerations you may want to take into account when deciding
how you want to learn. Read through the list and check which questions are
important for you:

29.
Language learning and language learners
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
15
Is there any ﬂexibility over where and when you study?
What provision is made for people with disabilities?
Is there a choice of learning materials and content?
What is the language of instruction? (Is most or all teaching done through
the target language or will your mother tongue be used?)
Are there any examinations or in-course assessments?
Does the course lead to a qualiﬁcation?
Does the course follow a particular syllabus?
Can the course be tailored to your own individual needs?
Will you be taught in a classroom with other students? How many?
How much time will you spend working independently?
Will you be supported by a tutor during that time?
What use is made of technology?
What and how do you learn about the target culture?
When you have found answers to the questions in Task 1.8, you may
also wish to consider the:
• Teaching method Most courses use what is known as a ‘communicative
approach’ which has the development of communication as its main
aim. Some courses use a more speciﬁc methodology to serve the same
purpose. If your course comes labelled, for example, as ‘Superlearning’
or ‘Michel Thomas course’, ﬁnd out what exactly is involved.
• Main focus of the course Most courses focus on communicative skills
which include listening, speaking, reading and writing and are often
based on materials which will help you understand the people and
culture of the country. Others have a more speciﬁc focus, for example,
conversation classes, or courses concentrating on reading skills, or
literature-based courses.
Opportunities and providers
A wide spectrum of language learning opportunities is available, ranging
from totally independent language learning to directed, classroom-based
study. Self-access centres are at one end of the spectrum: they are resource
libraries with access to books, tapes, videos and CD-ROMs. Self-access
centres offer very high ﬂexibility in terms of time and learning content but
support for learners varies. They are normally more suitable for highly
motivated experienced learners who have speciﬁc needs and know exactly
what they want. At the other end of the spectrum are classroom-based
courses with prescribed learning content. Many learners appreciate the
practice opportunities and the support from the other students and the
teacher they get in such classes. In between, you can ﬁnd institutions such

30.
16
Success with Languages
as the Open University, offering learning that is more flexible in terms
of time and place of study but with prescribed learning content and support
from a tutor. Self-study materials, which you can buy in most bookshops,
give you total freedom to decide when to study, but also require a lot of
determination.
Here is a summary of some of the main providers:
Adult Education Centres offer language classes at various levels, sometimes,
but not necessarily leading to a qualification (for example a GCSE or
Intermediate Certificate or Higher, an Alliance Française certificate,
or Open College Network (OCN) credits); many also offer tailor-made
courses for businesses.
Further Education Colleges offer language classes at various levels, often
leading to a qualiﬁcation; many also offer tailor-made courses for businesses.
Schools may have continuing education programmes available in the
daytime or in the evening. Some community schools also welcome the
integration of adults into their timetabled programmes.
Universities usually have an Institution-wide language programme (IWLP)
located in a Language Centre or within a Languages Department, which
is open to students of all faculties and sometimes members of the general
public. Some University Language Centres also provide business language
training.
The Open University runs language courses in French, German and Spanish,
which lead to a Certiﬁcate, Diploma or Degree, and combine self-study of
specially designed materials with tutorial provision.
http://www.open.ac.uk/
The National Extension College offers study packs combined with tutor
support leading to qualiﬁcations in French, German, Spanish or Italian at
various levels.
http://www.nec.ac.uk/courses/
The Goethe-Institut, Alliance Française, Instituto Cervantes and the Italian
Institute are cultural institutions sponsored by their respective governments.
They run language classes at all levels and offer their own, well-regarded
qualiﬁcations.
http://www.goethe.de/gr/man/deindex.htm
http://www.alliancefrancaise.org.uk/
http://www.cervantes.org.uk/new_index.html
http://www.italcultur.org.uk/institute.htm
The BBC publishes self-learning materials supported by audio-visual aids.
These are likely to be entirely web-based in the future.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

31.
Language learning and language learners
17
Private language schools offer language classes at various levels, often leading
to a qualification. Some will follow a particular approach, for example,
‘total immersion’, which means that the learners are steeped in the target
language and no use will be made of their mother tongue.
Institutions that are part of the TANDEM network will arrange conversation
exchange between speakers of different languages, and may offer classes
which mix, for example, English-speaking students who want to learn
Spanish with Spanish-speaking students who want to learn English.
TANDEM learning requires some previous knowledge of the language.
http://www.slf.rub.de
Private tutors teach individuals, groups or businesses and may offer tailormade provision.
Providers abroad may offer both long-term tuition (for those who live there)
and intensive courses for those who want to combine a holiday abroad with
language study.
Many institutions will have a self-access centre offering courses you can
register for and some will provide resources and even tuition online. Online
language courses from beginners to more advanced are also offered by
Learndirect, and include a ‘language diagnostic’.
http://catalogue.learndirect.co.uk/browse/languages/
The availability of different types of programme does, of course, depend
quite considerably on the language you wish to study. If you are intending
to study a commonly taught language you may ﬁnd that there is quite a lot
of choice, especially if you live near a major town or city. If you want to
study a less commonly taught language, fewer choices will be available.
You should be able to get initial advice and testing from all good providers
of language tuition. It is very important that the course you choose is right
for you in terms of type of course, language level and value for money.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
This book is unlikely to cover everything you need. Nevertheless, it should
support you in developing certain important skills in language learning and
sufﬁcient skill and conﬁdence to be able to use other resources.
Success with Languages aims to:
• give practical guidance on how to go about starting to learn a
language or taking up a language after a break;
continued

32.
18
Success with Languages
• encourage you to identify how you learn;
• provide useful ideas and insights into the process of language
learning, as well as drawing on the experiences of language
learners;
• help you to develop effective study techniques and manage your
own time in order to achieve your goals;
• help you gain proﬁciency through using different learner strategies
that suit your needs;
• help you to develop a more reflective approach to language
learning;
• give guidance on self-evaluation of progress and study technique
while studying a language;
• give information and guidance on available resources such as
books, CDs, videos, CD-ROMs or web-based learning materials;
• give information about how to access and use these resources;
• help you to make the most of support from others.
Task 1.9 Finding what you need in this book
Read through the contents page and check where you can ﬁnd information on:
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
how to choose a dictionary;
how to set realistic goals;
what use you can make of computers in language learning;
how best to tackle a text in the target language (for example a letter, a
report, or a brochure);
᭿ how to evaluate your own progress.
Which questions or topics are foremost in your mind when thinking about
your language studies? Where (in this book or elsewhere) might you turn to get
some answers?
Decide which chapters you are most interested in and mark the sections
which you:
᭿
᭿
want to read in detail;
want to read through quickly to see whether you are familiar with the
content;
᭿ want to come back to later.

33.
Language learning and language learners
19
You can use this book to prepare for your language learning and to
support you while you are studying. It is not meant to be read from start to
ﬁnish, although you can, of course, read it in that way if you want to. You
may, however, prefer to read those sections that seem important to you at
the moment and then refer to other sections as and when they become
relevant.
You will ﬁnd that while it is useful to think about the ideas in this book
at an early stage of your learning, some parts are most useful if you read
them while you are involved in the kind of activity they deal with. For
example, you may well want to read about assessment at the beginning of
your studies to get a general idea of what it may involve, but the chapter
will appear to you in a different light while you are actually doing an
assignment or preparing for an examination. Equally, you will ﬁnd it useful
to get a general idea of some of the principles and techniques for learning
vocabulary before you start, and then return to them at various points of
the course.
As you make progress in your learning, you will ﬁnd different parts of
this book interest you for different reasons. You may also initially just latch
on to one or two ideas contained in a chapter, but revisit it as a more
experienced learner at a later stage. The book is meant to be read ‘actively’,
which is why it contains small tasks for you to complete and questions for
reﬂection. Most of all, the book is meant to encourage you to try out some
of the ideas and suggestions contained in it, so that you can ﬁnd out what
is most useful for you.
Summary of key points
• Being clear about why and how you want to learn a new language
is a great asset to language study.
• Being realistic about what you can achieve is an important ﬁrst
step.
• Motivation is a very important part of language learning.
• Breaking down your goals into smaller ‘steps’ can help motivation.
• Learning a language involves acquiring a range of skills.
• There are additional beneﬁts from learning a language, such as
getting access to other societies and cultures, and being able to
communicate and interact across cultural boundaries.
• Knowing what sort of a learner you are and how you feel you learn
best can give you more control over your learning and make you
a more effective learner.
continued

34.
20
Success with Languages
• There is a range of different teaching methods and learning
opportunities to choose from.
• This book covers a wide range of topics and you can use it in
whatever way suits you best.

35.
2
Getting started
Annie Eardley, Helga Adams and Margaret Nicolson
This chapter looks at how to prepare yourself for studying a language as an
adult learner. Learning a language means more than acquiring vocabulary,
mastering grammar and doing exercises. It involves being well prepared
and well organized from the start. This means thinking carefully about your
needs, working out which level is appropriate for you and using this
knowledge to help you choose a course that matches your requirements. It
also involves organization (1) of your resources so that you can access them
easily and (2) of your study area so that you have the optimum conditions
for learning. Getting organized also means keeping effective records and
thinking about what works well for you.
Good time management is one of the keys to successful study and
is particularly important when learning a language, as you need to build
in regular practice, rather than rely on long stretches of study at infrequent intervals. Establishing priorities, making selections and reviewing
your progress on an ongoing basis will ensure that you remain in control
of your learning and make the best use of your time. It is also important to
remember that there are many ways to practise a language outside your
scheduled study sessions.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT COURSE
Importance of past experience
There may be many reasons why people speak only their mother tongue
and have no mastery of another language. An inability to speak another
language does not necessarily stem from laziness or unwillingness. It could
be due to lack of opportunity or bad past learning experiences. Language
learning may be associated with long lists of words to be learned by heart,
endless grammar exercises and lots of repetition. Attempts at speaking the
language may have been mocked or ridiculed. Such negative experiences

36.
22
Success with Languages
can cause feelings of inadequacy. On the other hand, you may have been
doing well at another language at school, but had to give up for a variety
of reasons: moving schools, lack of space on your timetable, no encouragement from family, etc.
Task 2.1 Thinking back
Think about your previous experience of studying a language formally. Which
aspects did you enjoy and which discouraged you? Why did you stop?
Comment
Many factors can have a negative influence in the early years and these will
shape your opinion of a particular subject. For example, the teaching approach
may not have been the right one for you, or you might have been discouraged
by too much criticism. Thinking back on what was good or bad about your
previous experiences can help you focus better on what, when and how you
want to learn a language now as an adult.
Matching your requirements with what the course offers
Chapter 1 gives information on learning opportunities and providers. It
also emphasizes the importance of thinking about the kind of learner you
are and your reasons for studying the language. It is worth taking time to
consider all these factors, so that you can make sure that the course matches
your requirements as far as possible. If you are learning in an institution
which provides a learning adviser, he or she will be able to discuss your
personal circumstances with you and guide you in your choice of courses.
You could also consult websites such as:
http://www.cilt.org.uk/careers/courses/index.htm
All educational institutions make provision for those with a disability.
If you are learning with the Open University, you will ﬁnd information on
the services available, including course materials offered in alternative
formats at: http://www3.open.ac.uk/learners-guide/disability/
Choosing your starting level
This is not always straightforward. You may feel that the time you spent in
what you perceived as the rather tedious language lessons as a teenager
have left little or no trace in your memory and decide to start from scratch
again as a ‘false beginner’. This may be the right decision for you, but
remember that you will be with real beginners who may be struggling to
acquire the basics of the language, and this could prove frustrating. You
will probably be surprised at how much you have actually retained and how

37.
Getting started
23
quickly you reach the level you had previously. On the other hand, be
careful not to overestimate your level or the demands of the course. For
example, you may feel that spending holidays year after year on a campsite
in France surrounded by local holidaymakers has given you a ﬂying start.
If you then enrol in a course that requires you to write and have some
knowledge of grammar, you could ﬁnd yourself disillusioned as you struggle
with the more formal aspects of the language.
The various course levels set out in an institution’s programme will
provide you with the basic information you need, and help you understand
what the expectations are with regard to terms such as ‘intermediate’ or
‘advanced’. Many providers match their course levels to national or
European standards which can be accessed, for example, from:
http://www.cilt.org.uk/qualiﬁcations/cef.htm
Amount of contact with the language
Another factor to consider is whether during the course of your studies,
you will have contact with a country where it is spoken or with speakers
of the language. For instance, if you travel frequently to Sweden on
business, you will have many opportunities to practise your Swedish in
real situations. You may also have a friend who is ﬂuent in the language
you are studying and is prepared to spend some time practising with
you. Naturally, this will require some effort on your part, but the key to
successful language learning is maximum exposure to the language. If you
have the opportunity to practise in a real-life situation, you will soon feel
more conﬁdent.
Placement and diagnostic tests
You may find it helpful to look at tests that are specially designed to
‘diagnose’ what you can and cannot do in the language and then ‘place’
you at the right level. The Open University currently offers self-assessment
tests to prospective students of French, German and Spanish to guide them
to the right course. These tests are paper-based and available in all OU
regional centres: http://www3.open.ac.uk/contact
The OU also offers the Tour de France, an online activity designed to
test your level of French so that you can decide which course is best for
you: http://www.open.ac.uk/tour-de-france/
There are other tests not linked to any particular course or institution
which may help you, for example the Dialang online diagnostic tests,
developed with the support of the European Commission:
http://www.dialang.org

38.
24
Success with Languages
Task 2.2 Choosing your level
Tick the statements that best describe your previous experience of learning the
language you intend to study:
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
I have no knowledge of it
I studied it at school for up to 3 years
I studied it for a qualiﬁcation but failed
I studied it for a qualiﬁcation and passed
I studied it more than 10 years ago
I have not had any opportunity to practise it since I ﬁnished studying
I never studied it formally but have had many opportunities to speak it
I studied it formally but never had any opportunity to speak it.
Comment
Taking time to consider these questions before embarking on your studies will
help you to place yourself at the appropriate level and prevent the frustration
that can arise when you ﬁnd you have made the wrong choice.
Choosing the right course
• What past experience of studying a language do I have?
• How much do I remember?
• What sort of course am I looking for?
• How much time do I have available for my studies?
• How much contact with the country or with speakers of the
language do I have?
• Do I really need to go back to the beginning?
• What tests are available for me to check my level?
• Can I take a look at the course materials?
• Are there descriptors of the levels or prior knowledge expected of
the student?
• Have I checked all available information from websites and other
sources?

39.
Getting started
25
CHOOSING AND ORGANIZING YOUR LEARNING
RESOURCES
Dictionaries, grammar books
Once you have decided on your course, consider what additional resources
you need to help you in your studies. You may be able to use books you
already own but if they are dated, you will need to buy books that have
been published more recently. A pocket dictionary or phrase book can be
a real help during a trip abroad but is unlikely to be adequate if you decide
to engage in more serious study of the language. You will also need a
grammar book which explains the new structures you will come across in
more detail. The choice here is much more complicated as there are many
such books on the market, varying in clarity and complexity. The advice
from your tutor and other learners will be invaluable. Some institutions,
such as the Open University, will provide you with the title of speciﬁc (set)
books that you are required to purchase and use during the course. Chapter
3 deals in more detail with dictionaries.
VCR and DVD players
Chapter 7 explains how you can best use videos for language learning.
However, in a busy household, this may create problems, for example,
competing for the equipment. Some courses include video resources with
their course material and you will need to organize your study sessions to
ensure access to the required equipment when you need it. DVDs can be
viewed on computers equipped with a DVD drive. Many students use long
business trips as an opportunity for studying. If this applies to you, you may
need to rely on transcripts or a personal DVD player.
CD players and cassette recorders
As discussed earlier, exposure to the language needs to be frequent. One
way of ensuring this is by using cassettes and CDs. You can listen to them
while travelling, for example. Language cassettes and CDs are often
interactive and ask you to respond to prompts. Although they are a little
artiﬁcial, it is nevertheless a good way to practise structures and expressions.
You will see in Chapter 6 that an excellent way to improve your intonation
and pronunciation is to record yourself, so make sure your machine has this
facility.
Computers
Computers, although not strictly necessary to study a language effectively,
are a useful tool. You may decide to invest in one in order to access material

40.
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Success with Languages
on the Internet, talk to people in other countries or enhance the presentation of your written work. What you want to do with your computer
will inﬂuence the quality of the equipment and software you buy. Check
that your computer can run any software necessary for your course but
beware of buying too sophisticated a piece of equipment which may prove
frustrating rather than helpful.
Choosing and organizing your learning resources
• What type of dictionary do I have?
• Do I need to buy a new one? What type?
• Do I need to buy a grammar book or to check online resources?
• How am I going to work with videos and DVDs?
• What equipment do I need in order to record myself?
• Will I need to upgrade my computer, for example, to be able to
use video ﬁles or interactive software?
ORGANIZING YOUR PHYSICAL RESOURCES
Where to study
As well as deciding on the equipment to use, you will also need to organize
your study area. Efficient studying requires concentration, often best
achieved in a quiet and organized place. If possible, ﬁnd yourself somewhere
in your home, a spare room if you have one, or a corner that you can make
your own and which will be solely used for your language studies. This
is particularly important if you live with other people. They will know
not to disturb you when you are settled in your study area. Make sure the
place you have chosen is adequately lit and warm enough and that you
have enough space for your needs. If you have a disability you will find
the following OU website useful: http://www3.open.ac.uk/learners-guide/
disability/study_needs/study_needs.htm
It is not always possible to ﬁnd a suitable place in a home you share and
if this is the case for you, you may need to adopt other strategies. For
instance, some students have found it useful to:
• store study materials in boxes, crates or bags so they can be used in
different places at different times;
• ask their employer if their place of work can be used before or after
work;

41.
Getting started
•
•
•
•
27
study in the kitchen late at night or very early in the morning;
work at the local library or at a friendly neighbour’s house;
share child-minding with other parents, to create some time for study;
get headphones to be able to isolate external sound and study audio,
video or Internet-based material.
If you plan to study on the move, ﬁnd a suitable bag for the things you will
need to take with you; personal CD player and spare batteries, pen and
paper, a small dictionary, for instance. Alternatively, you could draw up a
checklist of resources to consult when planning each study week to ensure
that you do not forget anything.
Study environment
The environment you create in your study area will of course be personal
to you and will depend on the type of learner you are (see Chapter 1, ‘What
sort of learner are you?’). However, you can add some local colour by
displaying pictures of a country where the language you are studying is
spoken. You could also have a board to display expressions and structures
you are studying if you retain information better when you see what you
want to acquire.
If playing music while you study helps you to learn, select some songs in
the language you are studying, for example, and put them in your study
area. One language teaching method known as Suggestopedia actually
encourages the use of background music in order to stimulate learning of
new structures and vocabulary in the L2.
Storage and ﬁling
You will save time and reduce frustration if you can access information
easily, for example:
•
•
•
•
•
•
work plans and timetables;
exercises;
assessment material;
course material;
course documentation;
cassettes and CDs.
The way you organize your material is up to you. A basic ﬁling system can
be set up in a box but a dedicated shelf will ensure that you can access
material more easily. You could also use ring binders and dividers, punched
plastic pockets, etc. You may like to set up an electronic ﬁling system for
storing some aspects of your work, e.g. useful vocabulary and phrases. The
most important thing is not to waste time searching for material.

42.
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Success with Languages
Organizing your physical resources
• Where is the best place for me to study?
• Can I find a space in my home that will be dedicated to my
studies?
• If not, what other arrangements can I make?
• How am I going to arrange my study space to make it comfortable
to work in?
• How will I organize the various material and documents that I will
need for my studies?
WORKING WITH AND AROUND FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Committing yourself to a programme of study will have an impact on
your friends and family. They may support you or hinder your progress;
sometimes they do both. To enjoy your studies as fully as possible, you will
need to let people know what you are doing and most importantly why you
are doing it. Whether learning a language enhances your career prospects
or simply makes trips abroad more enjoyable, your family will beneﬁt. If
they know about your course and the level of commitment it requires, they
will be in a better position to support you by giving you time and space for
your studies. In return, you also need to be aware that their routine may
be disrupted. It is all too easy to want to share your new experience but try
not to become a ‘study bore’!
Among your friends and relatives, there may be people who already
speak the language you are studying and are willing to help you by giving
you tips or spending some time speaking with you in that language. Other
friends could become study partners or ‘buddies’ if they enrol in the same
course as you. You will thus be able to support one another and share
experiences and study tips (see Chapter 3, ‘Studying independently’, for
more information on study buddies).
MANAGING YOUR TIME
Juggling your studies with other commitments can sometimes be difﬁcult.
You will undoubtedly need to make room in your life, as studying a language
successfully will require more than an hour now and again, if you want to
make progress. You may feel you do not have as much time as you need, or
that things take longer than expected. What can you do? Try considering
the 3 Ds: Defer, Delegate and Delete. Look at tasks you are planning and

43.
Getting started
29
decide on their urgency. Can whatever it is wait or not? Consider delegating some of the responsibilities you have to somebody else, at least
temporarily. Remember that nobody is indispensable and if you can be freed
of certain tasks, you will be able to devote more quality time to your studies.
Think of other changes you could make to your life that would free up time,
for example missing your favourite soap or cutting out one of your less
essential social activities. Effective time management will help you increase
time for study.
Task 2.3 Managing your time
Take some time to think about a typical week and ﬁll in your weekly schedule
below showing:
᭿
approximately how much time you spend on the important and regular
activities in your week;
᭿ where you will ﬁnd the hours you need.
Mon
Tues
Wed
Thurs
Fri
Sat
Sun
early
morning
9 a.m.–
12 p.m.
12–2 p.m.
2–5 p.m.
5–7 p.m.
7–10 p.m.
after 10 p.m.
When you have ﬁnished, ask yourself the following:
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
Have I found some free ‘slots’ in my week?
If not, is there something I can give up, put off or delegate?
Whose help will I need to make this work for me?
If all my language learning is going to be late in the evening, is this realistic
or sensible for me? Am I at my best at the end of the day or would I be
better getting up early in the morning?

44.
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Success with Languages
Comment
Plan for what suits you and your lifestyle and remember that subjects like
languages need regular practice, so little and often will be more effective than
long stretches of study. Research shows that concentration lapses after 20
minutes so remember to vary the tasks. Retention is affected after 90 minutes,
so if you are planning longer study sessions, make sure you plan a break.
Making the best use of your time
Common wisdom regarding language learning usually indicates that
short sharp bursts are best, but don’t worry if your work and home life do
not allow for this. Do what you can in the time you have. If you do have
to study for longer periods then try to vary activities so you do not get
bored. Learn to stop an activity if you are getting nowhere with it and come
back to it later. Break longer activities up into manageable chunks, and
make sure you allow enough time overall for what you are required to do.
You will need to match up the time you have with what you are required
to do. If your course provides a study calendar, then consult this and check
deadlines. Try to develop your own timetable, but incorporate some ﬂexibility, so that you do not become discouraged if unexpected circumstances
disrupt your schedule. Ensure that you build in time for checking over any
assignments you are required to submit, and also for revision. If you do not
have much time available, work out what sections of the course material
you really need to do and the sections you can risk spending less time on.
Low and high concentration times
You soon begin to work out which times of the day or night are best for
you to study, and you may ﬁnd that there are times when you are more tired
or less able to concentrate. If you have no choice and have to study during
these low concentration times, try to undertake tasks that are less
demanding. Below are some examples:
•
•
•
•
listen to recorded material for intonation and pronunciation;
revise a text or exercise you have worked on before and know well;
go over some notes you have already worked on;
tidy up and do a final check on any written work you are about to
submit;
• do something you ﬁnd easy.
All of these have the added beneﬁt of reinforcing what you have learned
previously and building your conﬁdence.
During high concentration times, i.e. times when you know you study
well, try the following:

45.
Getting started
•
•
•
•
•
31
do tasks which require you to write or speak in the language;
listen to or read materials you have never studied before;
make notes on new language points;
tackle something that you ﬁnd difﬁcult;
work on new items of grammar.
Establishing priorities and making selections
Prioritizing your learning needs is important. If there are a lot of materials
and/or activities you want or feel you ought to work on, it will to a certain
extent be up to you to select the ones that you consider most important at
any given point in your study. If you are studying in a distance or open
learning environment it is unlikely that you will have regular face-to-face
tutor contact, so learning decisions will be mainly in your hands. Learning
to select is important. The course you are studying may be designed for a
wide variety of abilities and backgrounds, so you may need to skip some
aspects or spend more time on others. This may be necessary when:
• you lack time to do some activities, particularly if your study involves
assignment deadlines;
• you already know an area well;
• you want to improve on a particular aspect of the language;
• you are having difﬁculty with a particular aspect of the language.
Think about your own strengths and weaknesses to help you decide
where to focus your efforts (see Chapter 4, ‘Assessing your strengths and
weaknesses: setting goals’). When learning vocabulary, for example, you
might want to differentiate between words and phrases you simply want
to recognize and ones you will actively use. You will need to spend more
time and effort on the latter. In some circumstances, if you are really short
of time, you may have no option but to plan your work around assessment.
Take the same approach to tutorial or classroom sessions and ask your
tutor to give you details in advance of what s/he is planning to cover. If
you are following a distance learning course, it would be a pity if you missed
out on valuable practice because you had not been able to cover all the
material up to that point.
In the early stages of language learning it is important to define
your priorities even more closely. Much of what you learn by way of basic
vocabulary, grammar and sentence structures will be essential for any meaningful communication. However, the quantity of vocabulary presented in
the early stages of a course may be overwhelming. You will therefore need
to select what is useful to you or what is best linked to the topics and/or
assessments in the course. It is also a good idea to go through the course
materials to find language you can use for very specific purposes. For
example, before going on holiday, see if your course can help you with

46.
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Success with Languages
booking a hotel room, ordering a meal, buying souvenirs and so on. This
helps to make your course materials more relevant to real life.
Opportunities for study
Learning does not just take place in your study area. Make the most of all
the other opportunities for learning that might be available to you, for
example:
• while driving to work, relaxing in the bath or going for a walk: listen
to a cassette or CD;
• while travelling on the train or bus: learn or revise vocabulary and
grammar;
• when on your own: talk to yourself about a topic of interest, or ask
yourself lots of questions. Talking out loud may not always be possible
but articulating the words through whispering will be more beneﬁcial
than just talking in your head.
• Keep a small notebook handy and use ‘dead time’ to jot down
words or phrases you have learned recently. Then write short
sentences using them in different contexts.
• Write words or phrases you ﬁnd difﬁcult to remember on Post-it™
labels and stick them up around the house (perhaps on a pin board
or on your fridge door) or at work if possible.
• Make vocabulary cards with the target language word or phrase
on one side and your own language on the other. Test yourself
and put the ones you know into a separate pile. Use the cards for
revision at a later date.
Task 2.4 Identifying where and when to set up
opportunities for study
Think about your own circumstances and add some more ideas for when or
where you might be able to set up opportunities for studying.

47.
Getting started
33
However organized you are, there will undoubtedly be times when you
feel ‘stuck’ or that you are not coping very well. Try the following:
•
•
•
•
•
take a break;
change to a different task or skill;
concentrate for a while on things you ﬁnd easy;
speak to your tutor or a learning adviser, if you have one;
talk to another student.
KEEPING RECORDS
As well as planning your learning sessions, you will ﬁnd it helpful to keep
a record of your progress. This will involve reﬂecting on what works well
and not so well for you and may include a consideration of:
• the timing and frequency of your study periods;
• the way you store new information, for example vocabulary and
language points;
• the type of learner you are.
Chapter 4 talks about learner diaries and learning logs and how to use
checklists to monitor your progress. However you choose to do this, take
time too at regular intervals to make brief notes on the progress you think
you have made and compare this with notes you have made on previous
occasions. Record yourself speaking at regular intervals, for practice but
also to see if you notice any improvements in pronunciation and intonation, and get a sense of where you need to direct your efforts. Go back
to the beginning of your course from time to time and see how much more
you can do now and how recordings in the course materials that seemed
impenetrable at ﬁrst are now much easier to understand.
You should also keep a note of useful resources, such as those described
in Chapters 7 and 8. Spend some time getting to know the structure of
your course material so that you can easily locate grammar points, the index
and the assessment schedule. Try to organize your notes logically so that
you can access what you need quickly and easily. This is particularly
important as you are likely to refer many times to the same page of your
notes, your course material or your dictionary. Finally, make a note of your
tutor contact details or ofﬁce hours so that you can ﬁnd them easily, for
example on a pinboard in your study area or in your electronic address
book.

48.
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Success with Languages
Keeping records
• What has worked well for me so far?
• What study skills and strategies am I ﬁnding useful?
• Have I made a note of useful resources including websites?
• What progress have I made this week/since I started?
• Where can I get help if I am stuck?
Summary of key points
• Assess your requirements to help you choose the right course for
you.
• Think carefully about the resources you will need.
• Organize your study area to suit you.
• Consider the amount of time you have available and how best to
use it.
• Identify where and when to set up opportunities for study.
• Keep records of your progress and of useful resources.

49.
3
Becoming an effective learner
Margaret Nicolson, Helga Adams,
Concha Furnborough, Lina Adinolﬁ and
Mike Truman
This chapter provides some ideas to help you develop your approaches
to learning and studying a language so that you make the best progress
possible. Becoming an effective language learner depends both on how you
approach your learning and on the knowledge you acquire. Whatever your
mode of study, the strategies you adopt are crucial in helping you to
progress. The kinds of strategies you choose will also need to reﬂect what
you want to get out of your study. You may be learning a language in order
to talk with other speakers of the language or you may wish to improve
your ability to read texts in that language.
Chapter 1 explains how people learn in different ways. Part of the
challenge is recognizing what works for you and being able to build on this.
This chapter offers a variety of strategies for you to try out before adopting,
adapting or indeed rejecting them according to your needs. On occasion
it is good to challenge old ways of doing things. In language learning, new
approaches to study can open up greater opportunities and encourage you
to overcome challenges that previously seemed difficult. All this brings
with it a feeling of success which assists progress.
LEARNING ON YOUR OWN
Learning is a highly individual process. However, a distinction is usually
made between studying independently and studying with a tutor and
other learners. Learning a language on your own may take various forms,
including mastering a few expressions from a phrase book, working through
a teach-yourself course or using the resources of a self-access centre. It is,
of course, possible to alternate between studying independently and
studying with others. You may choose to study alone in the early stages of
your language learning and join a group when you are more advanced.

50.
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Success with Languages
Alternatively, you may prefer to learn with others for an initial period and
switch to studying independently as you become more proﬁcient.
Task 3.1 Advantages and disadvantages of learning on
your own
Before you read on, try to think of some of the positive and less positive aspects
of studying on your own.
Comment
You may have considered some of these advantages:
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
being able to choose study times that suit you;
having more choice as to where you study;
being able to progress at your own pace;
being able to choose your own learning materials.
. . . and some of these disadvantages:
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
difﬁculty in maintaining motivation;
feeling isolated;
not having a prescribed course structure;
absence of immediate feedback or correction.
It is helpful to be aware of these aspects, so that you can make the most of the
advantages of learning on your own. Being aware of some of the less positive
aspects will make you better prepared and in a position to take action where
necessary, e.g. setting manageable goals to aid motivation; ﬁnding others to
learn with to reduce isolation; developing good time and organization skills
to help structure your work; using the feedback with answer keys and model
answers provided by many courses, and opportunities for reinforcing what you
have learned by using the language in different contexts.
LEARNING WITH OTHERS
You may be attending a language class with other students, studying a
language in a self-access centre or following a distance course through
independent learning. Wanting to communicate with others is often a
key reason for learning a language and this can take place in a variety of
contexts, for example, email exchanges, notes and letters. Communication
in the wider sense also includes understanding, for example street signs,
and reading newspapers and other informative material. But it is speaking
that involves others in the most direct and spontaneous way.

51.
Becoming an effective learner
37
Task 3.2 Using the language you are learning
Think about situations in real life where you might need to use the language you
are learning.
Comment
The situations you noted may have involved either talking to one person or
having a conversation in a group in a variety of contexts. You may have been
stating facts or giving opinions, or reporting to a wider audience, either orally
or in writing.
Learning with others in a language classroom
Classroom activities are likely to reﬂect different types of real-life contact.
Pair work with another learner
This may include:
• tasks where you need to get and/or give information, prompted by
instructions from your tutor, on a topic such as leisure activities or
holidays;
• tasks where you and your partner play different roles in a situation (with
varying degrees of tutor guidance, depending on the topic, situation
and your language level);
• games, such as building up a story together (perhaps based on pictures),
or using an outline to create the rest of the story;
• reading the same text, but with different tasks, for example telling the
story from the point of view of different characters; agreeing or disagreeing with a point of view expressed in the text, as you might in a
discussion or if you needed to report an event.
Small-group work
This may involve each learner taking part in a discussion, or taking a
different role which has been assigned beforehand. One speaker may also
be chosen to report on conclusions reached to the other groups.
Whole-group activities
Depending on the level of the learners, these may include a question/
answer session and discussion based on presentations given by the tutor or
other students, or general discussion of a selected topic, possibly as followup to work already carried out in smaller groups.
Learning a language with others has benefits. One is that it gives you
practice in the language and also develops the interpersonal skills you need

52.
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Success with Languages
in real-life situations. It is not just a question of using the appropriate
vocabulary and grammar or the correct pronunciation and intonation.
Equally important is the need to understand what others are saying and
doing in a particular situation, to take account of this and interact with
them appropriately. This might involve discussing a contentious topic or
reacting sympathetically. When you take part in such activities in a class,
you ﬁnd out how much you can do already and what you still need to revise
or practise, since you are getting immediate reactions from both fellow
learners and tutor. This can also be a source of great satisfaction, demonstrating that you have succeeded in communicating, and encouraging you
to progress further.
Studying independently
If you are studying on your own, either on a distance-learning course or
in a self-access centre, ﬁnding others to learn with may seem much more
difﬁcult, so it is important to take active steps to get in touch with other
learners or speakers of the language. This can include ‘meetings’ in a virtual
environment using conferencing tools via the Web (see Chapter 8, ‘Using
CMC in your studies’). Contact with other people will increase your
understanding of other cultures and make you more able to question and
compare different ways of life and beliefs and attitudes. All of this may well
contribute to a greater enjoyment of language learning.
One useful tactic is to establish a learning partnership. A learning
partner may be someone studying the same course or not involved with it
at all. In TANDEM learning, for example, speakers of different languages
exchange their language skills and cultural knowledge with each other (see
the information on the TANDEM network in Chapter 1, ‘Opportunities
and providers’). If you like this idea but don’t know anyone suitable, try
putting an advert in a local centre or library, or ﬁnding an e-TANDEM
partner (see also Chapter 10, ‘Making the most of support from other
speakers of the language’). Once you have found your partner or ‘study
buddy’, you can plan how to work together for mutual beneﬁt.
Task 3.3 Learning with a study buddy
Draw up a list of language activities you could usefully do with a study buddy.
Comment
Your course materials will contain activities that you could easily adapt to use
with a partner, e.g. talking about pictures, adverts, photos or paintings,
describing the people in them, giving your opinions about them, saying what

53.
Becoming an effective learner
39
they are doing, guessing what they might be talking about, making up dialogues
between the people, continuing the story beyond the picture, speculating about
their future or what happens next. Also consider the types of classroom activity
in the previous section which are appropriate to real-life situations, e.g. gathering
information about someone you don’t know well or about a place you would
like to visit. You might then go on to talk about simple personal matters, e.g.
what you did last weekend; what types of food you like; which parts of, for
example, Italy, China, Russia you know, what they are like, and so on.
• Look out for opportunities which may be less obvious in order to
learn something or to put your language knowledge to good use.
For example you may observe a breakdown of communication
between people who do not speak the same language. You might
consider stepping in to assist.
• Try to make comparisons between your own and other cultures.
Be aware of cultural practices which differ from your own, e.g. at
mealtimes, in social behaviour, religious practice, dress, conventions for greeting and taking leave.
• Be sensitive to any stereotypes which exist with regard to the
other cultures or peoples.
• Be aware that cultural differences also link to aspects of communication. For example the gestures and facial expressions people
use can mean different things in different cultures.
BUILDING ON PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE
Chapter 2 considers the impact of past bad experiences of learning a
language and how these can shape your attitudes. It is important, however,
to build on the positive. If you attend classes as part of your learning you
may feel that your experience of studying is not as great as that of other
people in your group, but remember that life experience is in itself a
transferable skill. Use your experience to try to overcome any negative
views you may have; your expectations and approach will be key factors in
successful learning. Your tutor will be happy for you to ask questions or to
suggest that you do something differently, particularly if you are learning
in an open or distance setting. It is important to free yourself of other
people’s agendas if you are going to be a successful learner. Be ready to
question the way an activity is structured, for example. Doing it a different

54.
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Success with Languages
way may enable you to get more out of it. Also, be prepared to challenge
your own views, as the way you have always done something may not be
the best. Listen to advice from those who have done it before.
MAKING USE OF PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
Learning a new language does not necessarily mean starting from a blank
canvas. You will probably be surprised at how much you already know, for
example about cultural aspects of the country or countries where the
language is spoken. You may even know a few simple words in the language
and be acquainted with other languages and cultures. The combination of
this and your knowledge of your own language will provide you with a
strong foundation on which to build your skills. Table 3.1 summarizes some
of the types of knowledge you may have and how this can help you in your
learning.
Initially you will be building a lot on the similarities between your
mother tongue and other languages you know and the language you are
learning. Words that may be the same in your language and the language
you are learning are known as cognates. As you make progress you will also
become more aware of the differences between languages, which will help
you avoid potential pitfalls. Look at the differences in the tenses below:
I have been living in Cardiff for two years (Eng: perfect continuous)
But note the use of the present tense in the following languages:
J’habite à Cardiff depuis deux ans (Fr); Ich wohne seit zwei Jahren in Cardiff
(Ger); Vivo en Cardiff desde hace dos años (Sp); Abito a Cardiff da due
anni (It)
Note too the different uses of the indefinite article in the following
examples, i.e. you do not use a when talking about professions, except in
the English example:
I am a teacher (Eng)
Je suis professeur (Fr)
Sono professoressa (It)
Soy profesora (Sp)
Ich bin Lehrerin (Ger)
You will also ﬁnd that there are so-called ‘false friends’ in every language.
These are words which look alike in two languages but have different
meanings. Compare for instance sensible (Fr and Sp); sensibel (Ger) and
sensibile (It) which all mean sensitive and not sensible as in English. You will

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Table 3.1 Using prior knowledge to help you learn
Type of knowledge
This can help you to:
Examples
Knowledge of your
own and other
cultures
interpret what you see,
hear or read; raise
your awareness of
differences and
similarities
If you have travelled to other
countries or other regions within
your own country, you may have
noticed that daily routines differ,
people have different attitudes or
express their feelings in different
ways. Awareness of such areas of
potential difference will help your
understanding of the target
language and culture.
Knowledge of topics
understand what you
hear or read
If you know about sports, you will
ﬁnd it easier to make sense of a
sports commentary in the target
language.
Familiarity with
different formats of
spoken and written
communications
anticipate the
meaning of what you
are going to hear or
read
If you are a regular reader of
newspapers in your own language,
you know about the kind of
information that is conveyed in the
headings, subheadings, ﬁrst
paragraphs etc. of newspaper
articles.
Knowledge of your
own and other
languages
understand vocabulary
and phrases that are
similar
(1) Vocabulary
ﬁnish/end/terminate (Eng); ﬁnir/
terminer (Fr); enden/beenden (Ger);
terminar (Sp); ﬁnire/terminare (It);
taxi (Eng/Fr/Sp); tassì (It);
´
такси (taksi) (Rus); ταξι (Greek);
tagsaidh (Gaelic);
(Arabic)
(2) Idiomatic phrases
I have lost the thread (Eng); Ich habe
den Faden verloren (Ger); J’ai perdu
le ﬁl (Fr); He perdido el hilo (Sp); Ho
perduto ìl ﬁlo (It)
Knowledge of how
language works at a
structural and
practical level
understand grammar,
anticipate what comes
next
(1) Past tenses:
I have eaten (Eng); j’ai mangé (Fr);
Ich habe gegessen (Ger); he comido
(Sp); ho mangiato (It);
(mo u ta be ma
shi ta) (Jap)
(2) Sequencing information:
ﬁrst – then – next – ﬁnally (Eng);
d’abord – puis – ensuite – ﬁnalement
(Fr); yn gyntaf – wedyn – nesaf – yn
olaf (Welsh)

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also ﬁnd that most idiomatic phrases do not translate literally into other
languages, for example:
faire un canard (Fr) (lit. to make a duck) = to hit a wrong note
ins Gras beißen (Ger) (lit. to bite the grass) = to bite the dust
´
´
βρε χει καρεκλοποδαρα (vréhi kareklopódara) (Greek) (lit. raining chair
legs) = to rain cats and dogs
сесть в лужу (sest’ v luzhu) (Rus) (lit. to sit down in a puddle) = to fail,
make a mess of things
(meyt fol w’arbataasher) (Arabic) (lit. 100 jasmine
ﬂowers and 14) = everything’s just perfect!
taro deuddeg (Welsh) (lit. to strike twelve) = to ring true
In the early stages of language learning, you may well find that your
mother tongue or another language you know will interfere with what you
are trying to say. This means that words may sound or look the same but
have different meanings, e.g. burro in Italian means butter, but burro in
Spanish means donkey. Don’t be put off by this. It happens to many learners
and will gradually diminish.
DEVELOPING SKILLS TO HELP YOU LEARN
Making and keeping notes
For many activities associated with language learning you may wish to
make notes. Some, such as notes on speciﬁc grammar points, will serve as
a more or less permanent record for future reference. Others, such as notes
to help you prepare a talk or an essay, will be of a more temporary nature
and can often be discarded once they have fulﬁlled their purpose. Some
notes are work in progress and will need regular updating, e.g. vocabulary
notes on a speciﬁc topic or outlines for reports.
There are different reasons for making notes. They can help you:
• build up language knowledge, for example in vocabulary or grammar;
• guide you, for example through a spoken task or writing of an essay;
• make sense of what you are hearing or reading in the language you are
learning;
• increase your cultural or historical knowledge and understanding on a
particular topic;
• reﬂect on your learning and your progress and help you work out your
strengths and weaknesses.

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Different ways of making notes
As with all methods of learning, there are different ways of making notes
in different circumstances and depending on what sort of learner you
are. Past educational experience may have taught you to make notes
in a certain way, but it is sometimes good to try new ways. If they don’t
work for you, then discard them. Different settings will also dictate what
sort of notes you are able to make, as you may be constrained by time
or space. Making notes covers the simple jotting down of vocabulary or
noting keywords, as well as more elaborate activities such as classifying or
connecting ideas.
Vocabulary lists
This is traditionally one of the most common ways to note and learn
vocabulary. Split your page into two columns, writing the new words in
one of these columns and the equivalents in your own language alongside
each one, in the other. Always note the gender of the word if it has one,
so that you learn this at the same time. If the word has an irregular plural
jot this down as well. Take a street for example:
Une rue (Fr)
Una calle (Sp)
улица (ulitsa) (Rus)
´
´
ενας δροµος (enas thrómos) (Greek)
(to o ri) (Jap)
Eine Straße (Ger)
Una strada (It)
(jie dào) (Mandarin)
¯
an t-sràid (Gaelic)
(shari’a ) (Arabic)
You may want to group words by topic, in which case dedicate a page to it
and only enter words linked to this topic; Figure 3.1 shows an example of
French vocabulary for card games.
At some stages in your learning you may want to write monolingual not
bilingual notes. This can help avoid the trap of translating words literally
from your own language. Your definition will therefore be in the same
language as the word you note. Look at the following examples:
alt – nicht neu/nicht jung (Ger)
vieux – pas neuf/pas jeune (Fr)
viejo – no nuevo/no joven (Sp)
old – not new/not young
Some learners prefer to draw a picture for their definition as this too
prevents interference from their own language.
s = happy (Eng); heureux/heureuse (Fr)
ß = sad (Eng); triste (Fr)

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Figure 3.1 Organizing and grouping words by topic.
Chapter 6, ‘Remembering and activating your vocabulary’, provides other
ideas on developing your vocabulary.
Key words and bullet points
Another useful technique is to pick out key words for a presentation and
organize these in a way that suits your purpose. These can be listed in order
of importance, in the order in which they will appear or according to main
headings and subheadings. Arrows can be used to link connecting points
if this is appropriate. Different size or colour of typescript or handwriting
can also help to distinguish main points from subsidiary points, as in the
following examples in German and Spanish.
morgens/ por la mañana/ in the morning:
aufstehen; duschen; Kaffee trinken; arbeiten
levantarse; ducharse; tomar café; trabajar
get up; shower; have a coffee; work

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45
mittags/ al mediodía/ midday:
nach Hause kommen
volver a casa
come home
nachmittags/ por la tarde/ in the afternoon:
einkaufen; Deutsch lernen
ir de compras; estudiar alemán
go shopping; learn some German
abends/ por la noche/ in the evening:
fernsehen, Freunde treffen, ins Kino gehen
ver la televisión, encontrarse con amigos, ir al cine
watch TV; meet up with friends; go to the cinema
Alternatively, you may wish to work with bullet points which will usually
be sequenced in the order in which you are presenting key points. This
learner was giving a talk on education in France:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
obligatoire 6–16 ans;
école primaire/collège/lycée;
brevet de collèges;
le baccalauréat;
redoubler;
lycées professionnels;
laïc;
écoles privées.
Abbreviations and codes
Shortened forms of words or sentences or symbols or numbers instead of
words or ideas are both very useful when making notes quickly. You may
wish to make notes this way when you are listening to a spoken piece of
language on audio/video cassette or on CD/DVD, or when you don’t have
time to write every word or sentence out in full. Make up your own
abbreviations and codes but try to choose ones that you will remember. For
example, words ending in –tion/sion, –science or –ic could be abbreviated
as follows:
N
= tion/sion, e.g. institu N (institution)
= science, e.g. con CE (conscience)
C
= ic, e.g. pragmat C (pragmatic)
CE
Graphics or numbers can also provide useful shortcuts. For instance,
arrows up and down can indicate positive or negative factors. Backwardand forward-facing arrows can also be used to indicate when events took
place or will take place in time. For recurring ideas you can assign a number.
For example, on every occasion that ‘economic development’ appears in a

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text or talk on that topic, you simply write 1 in your notes. Further
shortcuts can be made by missing out vowels, or using numbers or symbols
which sound the same. Those who are adept at texting on mobile phones
may ﬁnd this easy to do, for example:
tomorrow and Saturday = 2mrw + sat
Mind maps and ﬂow charts
Mind maps and ﬂow charts are useful for connecting ideas and establishing
relationships or categories. They can also be used when preparing notes for
a spoken presentation or when making sense of the main ideas in a written
or spoken text. For example, you have been given the topic ‘The origins
of the tango’ and have to give a 3-minute talk on this. You wish to group
your main ideas quickly and so that they are visually easy to grasp while
you are talking. Figure 3.2 is one example of how you might do this using
a mind map.
Mind maps or ‘spidergrams’ are also useful for noting related vocabulary
to help you to memorize and recall words more easily. Some learners use
them for organizing verb forms, particularly tenses, or to show uses of a
particular pronoun, as in the French example in Figure 3.3.
A ﬂow chart is useful if you have been given a text on a subject and wish
to trace the sequence of the author’s main ideas in graphic form. The
example in Figure 3.4 traces someone’s plans for next weekend, which are
dependent on the weather.
ORÍGENES DEL TANGO
Raíces musicales:
música afro
(Africa)
habanera
milonga orillera
música rápida
Rio de la Plata:
tango
Baile:
solo hombres,
artístico
Instrumentos:
bongó, flauta,
guitarra,
bandoneón
Lugares:
escenario (for
export), clubes,
instituciones
Música:
lenta (2/4 sin
letra), parejas
Figure 3.2 Organizing your ideas for an oral presentation.

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Using a dictionary
A dictionary is an essential tool when learning a language. It can offer you
much more than just the meanings of words. If you are following a taught
course, a particular dictionary may well be recommended. If not, your
choice of dictionary will very much depend on the layout, the size of print,
the clarity of presentation and the amount of information covered. You
should consider using a variety of dictionaries and renew your dictionary
every so often as language changes and new words come into use. There
are various types:
• Bilingual dictionaries are most commonly used when beginning language study. They provide the meaning of single words or phrases in
both languages.
• Monolingual dictionaries give the meanings of words and phrases
in the same language. They are useful when you want a deﬁnition of
a term in the same language or when you need to express a word or
phrase in a different way. For this reason they also help to expand your
vocabulary, which is particularly crucial at more advanced levels. Even
in the earlier stages of language study, learners find it very useful to
double-check meanings via a monolingual dictionary.
• Pocket dictionaries, phrase books and electronic translators are also
available and are handy for immediate use when travelling abroad, for
example, but be aware of their limitations.
• Pictionaries show you graphic representations of meaning. Some
students ﬁnd it easier to memorize new vocabulary by linking it to an
image.
• Specialist dictionaries are useful if you have a particular interest or need
specific terms for your professional or personal life. They are more
commonly used at more advanced levels of language study. They give
you more detailed information in your search for the correct term or
meaning.
• Online dictionaries are another option if you have access to a computer.
Dictionary features
Good dictionaries have a variety of features beyond the simple meaning of
the word. They indicate:
• the function of a word in a sentence (noun, adjective, verb, etc.) usually
in an abbreviated form, e.g. n, adj., v. Make sure you are familiar with
the abbreviations in order to be able to choose the correct part of
speech;
• the pronunciation of a word. Often they use the letters of the
International Phonetic Association (IPA) to present specific sounds

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•
•
•
•
•
•
49
and these will be listed in the introduction to the dictionary. You may
ﬁnd it helpful to familiarize yourself with these. With a bit of practice
you will soon be able to make sense of it. IPA characters are normally
inside square brackets. You can test yourself by looking up some words
in your mother tongue and checking which characters are used for their
pronunciation;
the use of the word in context, for example in a short phrase or
sentence. Meanings can differ depending on the context so it is
important to read the whole entry for the word;
idiomatic uses of the word, e.g. Hals-und Beinbruch (Ger: wishing
someone good luck; lit. break your neck and leg! The your is implied
here);
specialist terms. There may be occasions when you are looking for engineering terms, medical terms, cookery terms, musical terms, etc.;
verb conjugations, i.e. the different verb patterns and their endings,
e.g. in English: I talk but she talks. Complete verb tables are particularly
useful for irregular verb forms;
the register of the word, for example, whether it is used for formal or
informal purposes, whether it is colloquial or unacceptable in certain
circumstances;
cultural information such as festivals, for example:
KARNEVAL
Karneval is the name given to the days immediately before
Lent when people gather to sing, dance, eat, drink and generally
make merry before the fasting begins. Rosenmontag, the day before
Shrove Tuesday, is the most important day of Karneval on the
Rhine. Most firms take a day’s holiday to enjoy the parades and
revelry. In south Germany Karneval is called ‘Fasching’.
(Collins German Dictionary Plus Grammar, 2004, p. 188)
Task 3.4 Using all the features of your dictionary
Check whether your dictionary contains some of the following, putting a tick or
cross against each one as appropriate.
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
shows which part of speech the word is (verb, noun, adjective, etc);
shows how words are used in the target language;
has separate grammar section;
has separate verb tables;
gives guidance on pronunciation;

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᭿
lists specialist words (to see if it includes technical vocabulary, try mouse
or soundcard);
᭿ gives idioms;
᭿ indicates the register of the word;
᭿ lists cultural information.
Comment
A good dictionary will have many of these features. If yours does not, consider
buying a different one or taking advice on this from other language learners or
tutors if you can.
• Read through the introduction to your dictionary as a quick route
to understanding the conventions adopted.
• When searching for a word in the target language, check its entry
in the other half of the dictionary. In this way, you can make sure
that you have chosen the most appropriate word for your needs.
• Use your dictionary to extend your vocabulary. Words are remembered in context, so ‘read around’ the word you are looking up and
note down related words/expressions which are of interest to you.
• Try to work out the meaning of a word or phrase from the context.
You can check your interpretation later in the dictionary before
committing the word to your permanent vocabulary store.
• Some students like to trace their progress in acquiring vocabulary
by highlighting all the words in the dictionary they have ever
looked up!
DEVELOPING STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE YOUR LEARNING
One step further is knowing when and how to apply the skills and
approaches above, how to remedy problematic situations and how to
enhance what you do with the language. Some analogies from other areas
of life might help to illustrate this. When cooking, for example, the recipe
book will tell you what ingredients you need, the order in which to mix
them, the cooking time and the required heat. But you may want to cook
food for a longer or shorter time to suit your own particular taste. Perhaps
you like spicy food and will want to add chilli powder to most dishes to
give extra piquancy. Diagnosing what action to take allows you to achieve
success in your cooking in the way you desire it. In the same way, playing

65.
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51
the piano requires more than being able to read the music and play the
notes. You also need to be able to interpret the piece, understand the phrasing and compensate in ﬁnger technique for the instrument you are playing.
It is the same in language learning. Different situations require different
approaches and adjustments. You may come up against an accent or speed
of conversation that is not the one you are used to or be able to read a text
perfectly but not understand the cultural references which are crucial in
fully making sense of the text beyond the words. It is not enough to be
acquainted with the study skills; you need to know when and how to apply
them. Here are some strategies which will help increase your learning
awareness and move it on to a different level.
Knowing how to prepare yourself
. . . for predictable situations
Being equipped and at ease with the vocabulary, phrases or grammatical
structures you need for a specific and predictable situation will depend
on the strategies you employ in advance. Repeating and rehearsing what
you want to say or write is a technique chosen by many learners to increase
their familiarity with language they will need. Rote-learning of vocabulary
works for some people when they want to feel secure and have quick access
to the word or phrase they need. This saves reference to dictionaries which
may not be possible or too time-consuming. Other learners prefer to
practise using specific language in different spoken or written contexts.
This helps to free up the use of particular words or structures so that they
are not tied to just one situation and can be used ﬂexibly. The more you
use and reuse language in different contexts, the faster the vocabulary and
structures will become ﬁxed in your long-term memory and able to be used
automatically, without conscious thought.
. . . for unpredictable situations
While you may not feel the need to be prepared for the unpredictable in
your own language, you will discover that the greater your readiness to
accept the unpredictable in the target language situation, the easier you
will ﬁnd it to cope. Being aware that unpredictable things may happen is
half way to coping with them when they arrive. Even in unpredictable
situations there are strategies which you can apply both in advance and
on the spot. These are generally referred to as compensation strategies.
With the written form of the language you probably have time to work
out meaning with the help of the clues available to you. In spoken situations you have to act more spontaneously and may feel constrained by a
limited amount of knowledge at your stage of language learning. In these
cases, you can use guesswork as a way of understanding the whole message
by putting together both your understanding of the words, the tone, the

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context, the body language and any visual clues there might be. Even
in spontaneous situations it is often possible to predict what someone is
going to write or say. This may give you time in advance to listen or look
out for speciﬁc meanings, such as words or phrases linked to the topic or
to the way the person is feeling, which in turn may enable you to use an
appropriate response that you already have in your repertoire.
There are of course many situations where guesswork is not enough and
it is crucial to understand fully the response to a question you have asked.
These may be practical, for example asking for directions, for items in a
shop, for travel information, for medical or other emergency help, or they
may involve understanding people’s opinions on certain issues or personal
information about them. Often, although you are able to ask the question,
the response may catch you unawares if the language or expression or
accent in spoken language is unfamiliar.
Task 3.5 Compensation strategies for understanding
and being understood
If you have asked a question but don’t understand the reply, what could
you do?
If you want to express something but don’t have all the words you need,
what could you do?
Comment
You may have listed one or more of the following strategies for understanding.
Ask the person to
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
repeat;
speak more slowly;
express the idea in a different way;
write or draw to help illustrate what they are saying.
You can also be honest in telling them that you don’t understand or ask them
follow-up questions to further aid your understanding. You need to make sure
from an early stage that you are equipped with the necessary language to do
these things.
For speaking you may have thought of the following to make yourself
understood:
᭿
᭿
᭿
draw;
mime;
rephrase.

67.
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53
When you are in the early stages of language learning there is a temptation to
be too complex and to think in your own language ﬁrst. Try to avoid this and
use only phrases you know in the target language, however simple they may
seem to you.
Maintaining your conﬁdence
Keeping up your conﬁdence levels usually plays a major part in the progress
you make in any endeavour. Language learning is no exception. Chapter
1, ‘What does learning a language involve?’, emphasizes the importance
of reminding yourself of the amount of knowledge and the variety of
skills you will have already acquired as an adult in a vast array of contexts.
Yet everyone has feelings of inadequacy from time to time. These may
not always be linked to competence levels but to how conﬁdent or not you
feel at that time. Do not underestimate the influence of how you feel
psychologically or socially when learning a language, particularly in a group
setting.
If your study includes scheduled classes or you have the opportunity to
work with others, there may be occasions when you feel that your fellow
students are better than you or are more conﬁdent. If you do ﬁnd yourself
in a situation where this occurs, try to rationalize how you are feeling. If it
still gets you down or you cannot overcome it, then try one of the following:
• moving pair or group;
• sitting elsewhere (for the next activity or the next class);
• asking the tutor to assign you to a different pair or group for the next
activity.
Some people get stressed because of the pressure of the course they are
following, the teacher they have, the goals they have set themselves, or
their view of their success or failure. Stress in general can be relieved
by employing relaxation techniques. This can be as basic as playing music
that makes you feel good, to going to yoga classes or stopping for a cup of
tea! Doing something you know will give you some distance and that you
enjoy doing is the best relief for anxiety induced by study. It will also alter
perspectives in a positive way.
In real-life situations you may not have these options. Be aware that you
are not the only language learner to feel ill at ease in a social or work
context where the language is being used. As well as knowing what
linguistic strategies help you feel more conﬁdent, it is also good to know
how to cope psychologically and socially. Helping with the practical aspects
of a social event, such as offering to hand out drinks or food if this is
possible, can alleviate feelings of anxiety or exclusion caused by language

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barriers, as you are focusing on something other than the language. This
will also usually help break the ice with other members of the group. You
should try, however difﬁcult it might be for you, to move on and not let
any negative feelings overwhelm you. Sometimes it can be better to ignore
the fact that you have not understood everything and try to keep the
conversation ﬂowing, rather than make the person you are talking to repeat
the same thing umpteen times. In social contexts you do have the right to
leave if you feel linguistically excluded or uncomfortable. This may be more
difﬁcult in a work situation. In this case, it is best to make it clear to others
that you do not understand what they are saying and be reassured that no
one at work is going to think any the worse of you.
Task 3.6 Strategies to relieve stress and help you cope
List other relaxation techniques which have helped you or people you know
reduce anxiety or stress.
Comment
The list could be endless and there is no right or wrong answer. It is chiefly
about what works for you.
Managing low points
• Do not become seriously discouraged by setbacks but accept them
as part of the learning process.
• Accept that the way you are feeling generally within yourself at
the time may have a strong part to play in your reaction to the
setback.
• Accept that, at times in language learning, you will feel that you
have reached your peak and are not improving. This is a common
experience. Be assured that you are progressing and not at a
standstill. Concentrate on what you have already achieved.
• Accept that it is alright to say ‘good enough’ on occasion rather
than push yourself to an impossible limit. Often learners are
encouraged to aim for a native speaker target when in fact even
native speakers do not speak a perfect version of their own
language.

69.
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55
WORKING WITH MODEL ANSWERS AND KEYS
When learning independently, it is not always easy to get feedback on your
performance. This is why some course materials provide answer keys and
model answers, and include useful feedback for the activities provided.
Activities vary in their function, as does the nature of the answer keys. For
some activities (e.g. those providing intensive practice on a newly taught
item of grammar), the key will simply indicate the right answers with,
perhaps, some brief explanations. For others, it might be a model answer,
or a checklist of the ‘Did you remember to include . . . ?’ type, such as in
the more open-ended activities that place what you have learned in a wider
context. For example, if you have just been taught the structures needed
to describe a building, you may be asked to use them to describe your own
house. Obviously, each student will give a different answer, so in this case
the key can only give general advice and help. This can be a source of
frustration for independent learners, who can sometimes feel hampered by
the lack of on-the-spot feedback geared to their own needs. However, there
are ways of overcoming this problem. If your difﬁculty is a speciﬁc one (e.g.
doubts about the correct form of a verb), you will almost certainly ﬁnd the
answer in the course materials (by using the index or study guides), your
grammar book or dictionary.
The ability to identify and correct your own mistakes is extremely
important in language learning, but you have to make a conscious effort
to develop it. Use the key as a starting point for diagnosing your weaknesses, or listing topics that need revision. If the difﬁculty is more general
in nature, e.g. ‘What should I emphasize in the conclusion?’, you should
ﬁnd model answers, where provided, helpful. You could also discuss your
answer with another student: for example, you could swap answers,
compare them with models in the key and give each other feedback. Other
people can often be more objective than you yourself can, identifying shortcomings in your work that were not apparent to you. Self-help groups
are another source of advice and support (see Chapter 10, ‘Making the
most of support from your fellow students’). Finally, seek assistance
from your tutor if, despite all your efforts, you are unable to resolve the
problem. Chapter 4 goes into more detail about how you can monitor your
progress.
TAKING RISKS AND LEARNING FROM MISTAKES
Language learning is never complete; we can always extend our knowledge
and skills. This sometimes involves making mistakes, both inside and outside the classroom. Making mistakes should not be regarded as something
negative; it is part and parcel of language learning and can also help your
tutor give you feedback on a point you have not fully grasped. Nevertheless,

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many of us, when learning a new language as an adult, are on occasions
unwilling to take the risk. It is reassuring to know that even native speakers
make mistakes!
Task 3.7 Taking risks in language learning
When you have to speak the language you are learning in front of others, either
in class or in real life, how do you react? Tick the statements below that apply
to you:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
I only speak when I can be sure that what I am saying is correct.
I try to say what I want to, regardless of whether it is absolutely accurate or
not.
I only speak if others seem to be making mistakes as well.
I only speak if I have rehearsed something a lot.
I worry about speaking in case I can’t understand the reply.
I try to draw on what I have understood.
I try to check that what I am saying makes sense.
Comment
If 2, 6 or 7 are true for you, you are probably more risk-oriented in your
learning.
If 1, 3, 4 or 5 are true for you, you may be more reluctant to take these risks.
This may not be a problem, but if you are learning a language in order to
communicate with others, it is important to take risks when speaking.
The advantages of risk-taking
Taking risks means doing something without being sure of the outcome.
Real-life communication involves uncertainty, and dealing with the
unexpected. Taking risks in language learning means being prepared to
have a go at saying or writing something even if you are not exactly sure
how to do it, without worrying that you might get it wrong.
The student in Figure 3.5 was prepared to take the risk of talking without
understanding everything. When you interact with other speakers of the
language, there are likely to be situations where you have to deal with
the unexpected. Even when you have planned what you want to say, you
will not be able to anticipate what other people will say and how they will
react to your questions and comments. Through practising in the ‘safe’
environment of the classroom, where others can help you understand and
make yourself understood, you may become more conﬁdent in dealing with
real-life situations.

71.
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57
When we went to Madrid I got into a
conversation with an elderly
gentleman in a restaurant, and I could
understand about a third of what he
said, but he could understand most of
what I said, so we sort of carried on
quite a sensible conversation because
I picked up enough to give him
answers. . . .
Figure 3.5 A student view.
Task 3.8 Responding to a challenge
You are in a group where everyone else seems to speak better Spanish, for
example, than you do. Do you regard this as an opportunity or a threat? Why?
Comment
If you saw this as an opportunity, you are probably prepared to take risks
without feeling inhibited. If you saw this as a potentially threatening situation,
you are probably in the majority! Try, however, to see it in a more positive light,
for example:
᭿
You can learn from a good performance by listening to others and possibly
imitating what they have said at a later date.
᭿ If you make a mistake, listen carefully to what your tutor or other students
are saying and you may well be able to correct yourself.
᭿ Concentrate on taking the chance to improve your oral fluency without
worrying about grammatical accuracy. Measure your performance not
in terms of mistakes made (or avoided) but how much you were able
to contribute, or the length of time you talked. If you are still anxious
about being ‘judged’ on your accuracy by the tutor or other students, you
could explain your goal if that reduces your anxiety. (See also Chapter 6,
‘Accuracy and ﬂuency’).
Many taught language courses incorporate formative assessment tasks
(see Chapter 9, ‘Formative and summative assessment’). These may not
count towards your ﬁnal grade but you may receive feedback from a model
answer or from your tutor. These offer you the chance to take risks with
both written and spoken work and to try out new ways of communicating
your ideas and language without fear of losing marks.

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Success with Languages
DEVELOPING AN INDEPENDENT APPROACH AND TAKING
RESPONSIBILITY
Successful learning can happen when you are least aware of it. However,
there is no doubt that it will also happen when you have developed selfreliance and are prepared to take responsibility for your learning. Searching
for the answer will help you learn and embed the knowledge. However, it
also means being prepared to ask questions of yourself, the tutor, your fellow
students and other people and to use the resources you have at your
disposal. Take responsibility and use feedback to move forward.
Lots of different metaphors have been applied to learning. In trying to
get from Point A to Point B what are your tactics? Do you build bridges bit
by bit? Do you create tunnels exposing more light as you go? Do you ﬁnd
diversionary routes which take you off the path? Do you close your eyes
and take a leap? Do you go back over old ground to make sure foundations
are safe? Do you rely on others to get you there?
In language learning a mixture of all of the above may be inevitable.
Sometimes you may want to plan meticulously in advance; sometimes you
may simply want to take a leap in the dark. Whatever method you employ,
here are some useful tips for making progress:
• If you are following a course which is assessed, check your work
against the given criteria and establish reasons for errors yourself.
• Personalize your language and cultural notes. Make up examples
which are of relevance to you and not abstract.
• Record useful words and phrases on your own cassette or disc.
Include aspects of pronunciation and intonation.
• Learn vocabulary and revisit it.
• If you know you have made an error then correct it yourself if you
can, wherever you are.
• Be assertive when working with others, e.g. Say Hang on a minute
if you need more time to participate in a task.
• Discuss with others how they study, share tips, watch others.
• Step back and think. The ﬁrst response may not always be the best
one.
• With spoken language take the risk and say it.

73.
Becoming an effective learner
59
Summary of key points
• Language learning takes place in many different contexts on your
own and with others.
• Taking a proactive approach to your learning will mean that you
will become a successful language learner and will be able to use
the skills you acquire in many other situations.
• Building on your knowledge of your own and/or other languages
and on your own life experience will greatly enhance your
learning of a new language.
• Making notes plays a key part in learning. The more skilled you
become at making notes in different ways and for different
purposes, the easier it will be to manage your study material, to
organize your thoughts and to produce language.
• Successful use of the dictionary will be of invaluable help in your
language learning.
• Checking your own work against model answers and keys in
course books or with other students provides an additional
opportunity for enhancing your language learning.
• Making mistakes and taking risks is a key part of language
learning.
• Being in charge of and taking responsibility for your own learning
will make it more effective.

74.
4
Reﬂection and self-evaluation
Linda Murphy, Mirjam Hauck, Margaret Nicolson,
and Helga Adams
Reﬂection has become something of a buzzword in recent years. Why do
so many people feel that it is important for learning in general and language
learning in particular? What does it actually mean to reflect on your
learning and why should you do it? This chapter explains what is involved
in reﬂection and how you can increase your effectiveness as a learner and
boost your self-conﬁdence by setting aside some time to think about your
approach to learning, what you actually do and how you do it. Time spent
on this can save you more time in the long run.
WHAT DOES REFLECTION MEAN?
Chapter 3 explains the need to develop an independent approach and take
responsibility for your learning. Reflection is an important part of that
process. Every learner ‘takes stock’ from time to time and considers what
they have learned. You may remember particular words or phrases you want
to use next time there is an opportunity, or that you find easy to recall
because they remind you of expressions in your own language. Or you may
resolve to revise particular verb forms because you need to be able to use
them more often. Perhaps there is something you discovered about the
country or the people who speak the language you are learning which you
found particularly interesting and you want to ﬁnd out more.
Reflection means becoming aware of your learning and everything
connected with it, including how you are learning and how you learn best.
Once you are aware of what you are doing when learning, reﬂection also
means questioning and challenging your habits and assumptions. In this
way you can gain new knowledge and understanding, learn more about
yourself and your learning and make appropriate decisions about how
to move on. In order to reflect effectively, though, it is not enough to
just ‘think back’ over events in an unstructured way; a more systematic

75.
Reﬂection and self-evaluation
61
approach is needed. The ﬁrst part of this chapter sets out the different areas
in which you need to develop awareness and how you might achieve this.
The second part looks at ways of questioning and challenging yourself in
order to learn more effectively.
DEVELOPING AWARENESS
To help you become an effective language learner, you need to develop
awareness of:
•
•
•
•
•
yourself as a language learner;
the context in which you are learning;
features of the language you are learning;
the choices you make about your learning and their implications;
your performance and progress.
How can you develop your awareness in each of these areas as you learn
your chosen language?
Awareness of yourself as a language learner
People have different beliefs. What you believe influences what you
do, how you do it and what happens to you. As a result people may react
differently in the same situation. For example: Do you avoid doing things
that don’t interest you, or get involved to motivate yourself? Do you prefer
to have an overview or do you need lots of details? Similarly, each learner
experiences the language learning process differently. To learn effectively,
it is important to be aware of the beliefs you have about language learning,
how you approach your language learning and the assumptions you make.
It also helps to be aware of other possible approaches so that you can try
them out to see how helpful you ﬁnd them for yourself. There are examples
of possible approaches and language learning techniques for you to try
throughout the book.
Your beliefs about language learning can either limit or assist the learning process. If you believe, for example, that your learning is inﬂuenced by
your ability (along the lines of: I am no good at . . . ) or your teacher alone,
then you have no control. If, on the other hand, you look at it as something
inﬂuenced by the amount of time, effort and interest you put in, you retain
control and can make a difference. Your beliefs and assumptions are likely
to depend, at least to a certain degree, on your past experiences. They are
also likely to have an impact on your attitudes towards new situations such
as, for example, learning a language at a distance and/or in a virtual
learning environment via the Internet. Becoming aware of them can help
you make decisions about learning and enable you to become more ﬂexible
in your approach.

76.
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Success with Languages
Chapter 1 asks you to consider your learning styles and preferences, that
is, whether you are a visual, auditory, tactile or kinaesthetic learner or
maybe even a bit of everything. If you worked through tasks 1.6 and 1.7,
you may have been surprised by the outcome of the task or found that your
answers conﬁrmed your beliefs and assumptions about yourself.
Awareness of the context in which you are learning
Chapter 2 encourages you to spend some time organizing your resources
and your learning environment. The most important resource you have is
yourself. The previous section explained why it is important to understand more about yourself and the way you learn. It is also important to
look more closely at the qualities or personal resources which you bring
to your language learning and how best to manage them. Successful selfmanagement means that you:
• understand the conditions/circumstances under which you can
accomplish a certain (language) task, i.e. you are aware of what is
needed;
• can create those conditions for yourself and make best use of the
resources you already have.
Task 4.1 may help you understand the qualities you demonstrate in the
activities you manage successfully on a daily basis, i.e. which personal
resources you use. You will want to draw on those resources to become
equally successful as a language learner.
Task 4.1 Becoming aware of your personal resources
᭿
Make a list of all roles you play in life, e.g. business partner, mother/father,
neighbour, counsellor (for friends’ problems), plumber, cleaner, artist,
mathematician (children’s homework, tax return), Open University student,
etc.
᭿ Imagine each of these roles is a job you are applying for. Write down
the personal qualities you bring to each job, keeping in mind that you really
want this job. Write down the qualities which will help you get it (but be
honest!).
᭿ By now you have probably realized that you are quite talented. Now add
those qualities that you are aware that you have but don’t seem to be using
at the moment.

77.
Reﬂection and self-evaluation
63
᭿
When you have ﬁnished, look at the ‘jobs’ for which you don’t seem to have
many qualities and see whether you could use any qualities from other
‘jobs’.
᭿ Which of all these qualities do you think can be useful in language learning?
Source: adapted from J. Revel, and S. Norman,
(1997) In Your Hands, Safﬁre Press, p. 71
http://www.safﬁrepress.co.uk/content/?page=1
Comment
You will have identified a wide range of personal resources which you draw
on in certain contexts. Having identiﬁed them, you will be able to draw on them
in other contexts such as learning a language. For example, if you are able
to do several things at once, are creative and good at making contact with
people, look for ways of using these resources. You might revise vocabulary
while putting the children to bed, create memorable examples for new language
learned or get in touch with a speaker of your target language who has moved
into your neighbourhood.
It is important not to confuse ‘personal resources’ with ‘skills’. As a
language learner you may not have the skills yet to speak another language
as ﬂuently as you would like, but you have the ability to learn and, as you
can see from Task 4.1, you already have a vast array of resources which will
help. You will probably know people who have similar qualities and who
have learned to speak another language very well. Take inspiration from
them!
Most people tend to be aware of the things they are not good at.
However, once you start analysing the qualities or personal resources you
have, you are likely to be able to transfer these positive attributes from one
particular context in your life to another, for example language learning.
Becoming aware of your personal resources and qualities so that you can
access them when you need to is the ﬁrst step.
Awareness of features of the language you are learning
Even before you started to learn your chosen language, you probably had
some general impressions and ideas about it. Here are some people’s
responses when asked about their impressions of German:
•
•
•
•
has lots of long words;
w pronounced as v;
it can sound rather ‘throaty’, all those ach sounds;
strange word order with verbs at the end of the sentence;

78.
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Success with Languages
• many words like English words: Bier (beer), Wein (wine), Butter
(butter), Mutter (mother);
• some words used in English: Kindergarten; Schadenfreude; Zeitgeist;
• language of musicians (Bach, Brahms, Beethoven);
• language of science, technology: Vorsprung durch Technik!
• spoken in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, N. Italy;
• Bavarians speak a dialect that even other Germans can’t understand;
• German is a hard language to learn.
If you look at this list and at your own list, you will see that the items
can be grouped under various headings: sounds of the language; word
formation; pattern of the sentences or longer pieces of language; and social
or cultural role of the language, as well as different forms of the language.
These groupings indicate the main aspects of the language you need to be
aware of and are examined in more detail in the following sections with
suggestions to help you increase your awareness.
Task 4.2 Impressions about the language you are
learning
Make a note of the following:
᭿
᭿
the language you want to learn;
your impressions/ideas about this language (e.g. its sounds, its inﬂuences
on other languages, etc.).
Comment
Depending on the language you have chosen, you will probably have a wide
range of impressions. Some of them may be based on fact or experience, others
more on stereotypes handed down through the years.
How the language sounds
Each language has a set of distinctive sounds because of the way it is
pronounced, and its intonation patterns, i.e. the patterns of emphasis
or stress on different parts of words or phrases and the way a speaker’s
voice rises and falls, in other words, the ‘music’ of the language. You learn
the pronunciation, stress and intonation patterns of a language by
listening and trying to imitate them yourself, by using the language, rather
than by reading about the rules that govern its various features. Chapter 5
explains the importance of becoming familiar with the sounds of the
language you are learning and Chapter 6, ‘Pronunciation and intonation’,
gives advice and techniques to improve your speaking skills. It is helpful

79.
Reﬂection and self-evaluation
65
to look out for patterns as you learn so that you can make sense of them
and remember them.
Patterns of stress and intonation have a big impact on meaning and
differ from one language to another. If the patterns are distorted or altered
in this way, it makes spoken language very difﬁcult to understand. This can
cause more problems than mispronouncing individual sounds. Spend time
listening to the stress patterns in the language you are learning. At the
same time, listen to the way a speaker’s voice rises and falls. This intonation
affects meaning, for example indicating surprise or a question, as in the
English exclamation: Another piece of cake! or Another piece of cake? In some
languages, such as Mandarin or Vietnamese, a change of intonation changes
the meaning of individual words. To increase your awareness of the sound
patterns in the language you are learning try the following:
• Note any pairs of sounds that you need to distinguish, e.g. u and ü in
German or è and é in French. Collect examples of words with these
sounds. Practise repeating them and record yourself. Play back later and
see if you can decide which word was which. Examine the words to see
if you can spot any patterns in the use of these sounds.
• Listen to short examples of the language on your course CDs or
cassettes. Mark on your transcript (if you have one) the syllables which
are emphasized. Does the emphasis follow a particular pattern? When
you learn a new word, make a note of where the emphasis falls, e.g. in
English: interesting, celebration (see also Chapter 6, ‘Intonation’).
• Check your dictionary to see how stress patterns are shown.
• Listen to a short audio extract and concentrate on the rise and fall of
the speaker’s voice. Read the transcript as you play the audio and copy
the intonation patterns. You can mark this on the transcript with arrows
to remind you. Try to spot examples of where the intonation has an
effect on the meaning or examples of certain patterns which are used
for particular effects, such as to express surprise.
• Listen to the patterns of sound in your own language and look out for
similarities to or differences from the language you are learning.
Word formation and sentence patterns
When you learn a new language it can seem as if you are being swamped
with new words. Being aware of patterns can make things easier and reduce
the amount you have to remember. Certain patterns may always indicate
a verb or a noun, certain conventions will transform a noun into an
adjective, for example in English adding a y can make the noun sand into
the adjective sandy, or wind into windy. (See Chapter 6 for ways of remembering and activating vocabulary.)
You should also be aware of how words are combined in the language
you have chosen to study. The rules for combining words are known as the

80.
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Success with Languages
syntax or grammar of a language, as described in Chapter 1, ‘What does
learning a language involve’. In many languages, including English, word
order is very important for conveying meaning. Apart from word order,
languages use many other ways to express key ideas, for example, word
endings, words and phrases to indicate time, location, amount, etc.
At first you will be more concerned with how to put together short
sentences or pieces of speech. As you learn more of the language, you will
need to be aware of how longer pieces of spoken or written language are
put together. Chapter 6, ‘Making your speech writing ﬂow’, examines how
to use linking devices and how to make sure that the structure of what you
say or write is appropriate for your intended purpose.
Task 4.3 Increasing your awareness of word formation,
and sentence patterns
Note down any patterns you have noticed in the way words are formed or
transformed in other languages and look out for further examples in the
language you are learning as you go along.
What are the similarities to or differences from the word formation and
sentence patterns in your own language?
Comment
As Chapter 3 explains, making use of prior knowledge of any aspects of the
language, including words that are the same (cognates) and ways in which it is
different from your own, can provide you with a strong foundation for learning
a new language and even make the task easier.
To increase your awareness of word and sentence patterns: when you learn
a new grammatical point in your course or learn how to convey particular ideas,
make a point of looking for more examples both in the course material and
elsewhere. Try creating your own examples too.
The social and cultural role of the language
Language is a very important part of our identity and when you learn
another language you are learning much more than words and syntax.
Apart from learning about the social and cultural life of the people who
speak the language you have chosen to study, you will become aware of
different ways of using the language, for example the Bavarian dialect
mentioned earlier, or the ways in which Spanish is spoken in different parts
of the world. You may learn how different groups of people use the language
for particular purposes. There are powerful cultural associations such as the
impression of German as ‘the language of musicians’. A language may be
a strong focus of regional identity and culture, for example in the Basque

81.
Reﬂection and self-evaluation
67
and Catalan regions which straddle the French/Spanish border. It may be
used by particular groups of people, for example the government in China
uses Mandarin rather than other Chinese regional languages. Learning and
speaking some languages or dialects may also be used to make a political
statement, for example the use of Gaelic in Scotland or Ireland.
Within every language there are further associations and cultural
connotations attached to words and phrases, for example, if English is your
ﬁrst language, what images are conjured up by the words lads or cool? Are
you aware of changes in the connotations of these words? At the same time,
there is usually a difference between spoken and written language and there
may be more or less formal forms of address depending on the circumstances
and status of the people involved. This is referred to as language register.
(See Chapter 5, ‘Engaging with the cultural content’, and Chapter 6 for
further explanations of style and register.)
MONITORING YOUR PROGRESS
Chapter 2, ‘Keeping records’, explains the importance of reviewing your
progress in order to keep yourself motivated. This also ensures that any
tasks you undertake are successfully completed, that they have increased
your knowledge and understanding of the language and helped you to
improve your use of it. Systematic monitoring is therefore crucial for
developing an independent approach and taking responsibility for your
learning. The following sections explain some ways of monitoring your
progress.
Keeping a learner diary or learning log
A learner diary, notebook or log is a useful tool to help you think about
your learning in a structured way and assess your own needs and progress.
In your diary you could do the following:
• Make a note of your achievements in a speciﬁc skill, topic or grammar
point. Evaluate your performance by giving an indication of how well
you have done. You can choose your headings, for example: very well,
moderately well, not so well.
• Make a note of your general strengths and weaknesses.
• List improvements. These are not always apparent in language learning.
Look for evidence. For example your tutor’s comments on your work
will be useful. You may also be able to gauge improvement yourself. For
instance you may notice that you are now using a grammatical structure
you once found difﬁcult.
• Make a note of things you need to do. These will often emerge as you
evaluate your own performance. Try to discriminate between what you

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Success with Languages
really need to do and what you enjoy doing. Try to achieve a balance
in your list so that you retain motivation.
• Make a note to reuse idioms, expressions and phrasing that have worked
well for you.
Here are two examples:
(1)
Aim
Points to work on
Success rate
Further work
Participate in a
group
conversation.
How to pause
while making a
point.
Learned some
ﬁllers but still too
slow presenting
ideas so I get
interrupted.
Listen to/watch
debates on radio
and TV.
Get reﬂexive
verbs of daily
routine right.
Irregular verb forms
for ﬁrst person
and third-person
singular.
Still some
problems with
word order of
reﬂexives in the
past tense when
speaking but
deﬁnitely getting
better.
Describe my own
routine out loud for
the next few days.
Record if I have
time.
(2)
Monday: Got tutor feedback. Need to work on agreement of adjectives.
Reread grammar note. Good on colours but not size, shape, etc.
Tues: Try to write descriptions of 10 things in the house making
sure adjectives agree. Concentrate on size and shape.
Wed: Test myself without looking at the descriptions.
It is important to ﬁnd a style and format that suits you and your purpose
for learning. As well as recording what you have done and how it went,
make a note of anything you want to follow up or questions you want to
ask your tutor. You could also jot down things that you found particularly
interesting about the language or the people who speak it (for example,
word or sentence patterns).
Using checklists
Another way of monitoring your progress is to use the checklists of key
learning points or intended learning outcomes which most courses provide

83.
Reﬂection and self-evaluation
69
at the beginning or end of course units or class sessions. Look at the items
and try to decide how well you have done. What sort of evidence do you
have for your judgements? Try to get into the habit of making a quick check
at intervals during your course.
Table 4.1 is a completed example. You can use this method for a single
session or for your study of a course unit or chapter over a period of time.
Table 4.1 Using a checklist of key learning points to monitor progress
Intended
outcomes: by
the end of this
unit you will:
In general,
how well did
I do?
What evidence
do I have for
my judgement?
What have I
improved since
last time? How
do I know?
What else do I
need to work
on? How am I
going to do it?
• understand
and be able to
use names of a
number of
common dishes
and drinks
OK, I found it
quite easy to
remember
these
I was able to
supply names
when the
teacher showed
us pictures. She
praised my
pronunciation!
I’ve practised
some sounds
using the CD
and it has
obviously paid
off
• be able to
order a meal
from a menu
I gave an order The other
in a role-play
student who
took my order
appeared to
understand what
I wanted!
I didn’t feel so
stupid trying to
say longer
things. I felt
pleased with
myself for
having a go!
The test will
be trying it out
for real, but that
will have to wait
until my next
trip.
• be able to
ask for the bill
and pay for
the meal
I think I did
this OK
Again, the
other student
appeared to
understand and
I managed to
give an amount
of money to
cover it
I understood
some of the
prices this time
but I couldn’t
catch the total.
I just had to
hope I’d given
enough
I need to get
more used to
understanding
numbers. I’ll
listen to the
activities on the
CD again.
Perhaps I can
persuade a few
colleagues to try
a game of bingo?
• know the
usual restaurant
etiquette
and how it
compares with
your experience
I had some
previous
experience, so
I think I knew
this already
I know what to
expect from
my previous
visits
I’m more aware Can’t wait to go
of the
again!
differences from
what I am used
to and the
importance of
the polite forms

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Success with Languages
Task 4.4 Monitoring your progress by using a checklist
Look at the key learning points or intended outcomes for one of your own
course units and try this approach.
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
What are the key learning points for this section?
In general, how well did you do?
What evidence do you have for your judgement?
What have you improved on since last time? How do you know?
What else do you need to work on? How are you going to do it?
Comment
Looking at your performance in this way can help give value to the positive
aspects of your performance rather than allowing negative feelings about one
or two things to dominate.
Using the language you have learned
A good way of checking your progress can be to use the language for
real! If you have the opportunity, talk to speakers of the language where
you live, look at a magazine or a satellite TV channel if available. Engaging
in ‘real’ communication in any form is a good way to measure your progress,
whether this is face-to-face, by phone or via the Internet (see Chapter
8, ‘Using CMC in your studies’). Ask yourself these questions: Did the
others understand you and respond in a way that you hoped? Were you able
to understand the gist of a conversation or an article? Were you able
to contribute anything, or even a bit more to a conversation than you
did last time? Were you aware of how cultural differences or similarities
affected your interaction with other speakers of the language? You can use
a similar framework for reviewing your learning in these situations to the
one suggested above for intended learning outcomes. Engaging in real
communication can be an enormous source of encouragement. As one
learner exclaimed, after successfully negotiating accommodation for a visit:
‘Yes! I can do it!!’
Developing awareness is the first stage of reflection and the basis for
challenging your habits and assumptions, so that you are ready to make the
choices and decisions that are beneﬁcial to you throughout your language
learning. This includes reflecting on your preconceptions and attitudes
towards the other culture(s) and asking yourself whether your language
learning experience has increased your understanding of that culture and
challenged any previous attitudes and assumptions you held.

85.
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71
ASSESSING YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES:
SETTING GOALS
Assessing your strengths and weaknesses involves asking yourself key questions as in Task 4.5. Answers to these will refer both to your performance
in the language and to your approach to learning it. It’s all too easy to get
bogged down by the things you ﬁnd difﬁcult and to take your strengths for
granted, so always make a point of asking yourself what you do well ﬁrst.
Task 4.5 Assessing your strengths and weaknesses
Answer the following questions as fully as possible:
᭿
᭿
What do I usually do well?
What do I often ﬁnd difﬁcult or need to improve on?
Comment
You may feel happy doing grammar exercises because you always get them
right. Perhaps you are good at pronouncing new words and remembering
them. You may feel you have a good system for storing new words because
you can usually ﬁnd what you need easily. On the other hand, it could be that
you find it hard to join in a conversation because you have difficulty understanding when others speak fast. You may need to concentrate on getting the
gist rather than on understanding every word (see Chapter 5, ‘Reading or
listening for information’).
Having a general idea of your strengths and weaknesses is ﬁne up to a
point, but if you are going to build on your strengths and address your
weaknesses, you will need to be more speciﬁc. You can’t work on everything
at once so it is important to set yourself short-term, manageable steps or
objectives as suggested in Chapter 1. These steps are stages on the way to
reaching your longer-term goal, whether this is to be able to go shopping
on your next visit to the country, or to complete the next spoken or written
assignment for your course. Examine what you will need to be able to do
in order to achieve your longer-term goal and consider your strengths and
weaknesses in relation to these short-term objectives. Table 4.2 gives an
example for a beginner and a more advanced learner.
This approach is similar to the one suggested for monitoring your
progress in Task 4.4; in that example, you started from a set of key learning
points or intended outcomes. These examples start from the elements
which, in combination, will allow you to achieve a particular goal. Either
framework can be used for assessing your strengths and weaknesses. In each
case, it is important to consider what evidence you have for your

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Table 4.2 Identifying strengths and weaknesses
Longer-term goal
Short-term objectives
OK Needs a Difﬁcult,
To achieve this longer-term goal
bit more not there
I need to:
work
yet
Beginner level:
I want to be able
know and say vocabulary for
to shop on my next items to purchase
visit so I need to:
know how to ask for things
understand and say numbers
know how people behave when
shopping (e.g. will shop
assistants ask me what I want
or will I be left alone?)
✓
✓
✓
✓
More advanced learner with formal assessment:
for my next
written assignment
I need to:
understand the gist of the source
materials
pick out speciﬁc information
required
structure ideas into a clear plan
spell accurately
include all the information
required in my own words
use appropriate grammatical
structures accurately
use a range of vocabulary and
linking phrases to give variety
keep to the word limit
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
judgements so that you have a sound basis for ticking ‘OK’, or ‘difﬁcult,
not there yet’. There are several sources of evidence which you can draw
on. Using language for real communication as mentioned earlier can
provide useful feedback. Your fellow learners, your tutor and other speakers
of the language will provide feedback on your performance in a number of
ways. They will respond to what you say or write in ways that indicate that
you have succeeded in conveying the message you intended, or ask for
clariﬁcation when the meaning is not clear. In conversation, they may also
repeat words and phrases in a way that shows you how they should have
been said, or how ideas might have been expressed more appropriately.
Sometimes they will point out inaccuracies or mistakes.
Feedback of all types can help you form a judgement about your strengths
and weaknesses in relation to the elements of your immediate short-term
objective or the key learning points in any piece of learning material.
Simply being aware of them is very important, but not the end of the

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matter. You also need to ask yourself the following questions: Which of the
items in the ‘needs a bit more work’ and ‘difﬁcult, not there yet’ columns
are the priorities? How shall I tackle them? When shall I do it by?
Task 4.6 What do you need to be able to do to achieve a
longer-term goal?
Choose a longer-term goal. The examples in Table 4.2 should give you
some ideas.
Decide what you will need to be able to do in order to achieve this goal.
Assess how good you are at these things already and which you may need
to work on. What evidence do you have for your judgement?
Comment
If you are not sure about the things which you need to be able to do to reach
your goal, talk to your tutor, discuss it with a fellow learner or with someone
who has learned the language before.
DEFINING YOUR PRIORITIES IN ORDER TO DRAW UP AN
ACTION PLAN
Chapter 2 looks at establishing priorities and making selections in order
to cope with large amounts of course material and make the best use of
your study time. To help you prioritize, consider what is likely to make the
most difference to your performance. Work out what would be relatively
quick and easy to do and therefore give you an immediate boost for relatively little effort. In Table 4.2, writing and spelling accurately might come
into that category. Perhaps you could make use of a spellchecker? Maybe
you need to adopt a systematic technique for checking your work? Ask
yourself if you need to spend more time on understanding how particular
structures work and where exactly the difﬁculty lies. Concentrate on one
or two structures.
Once you have selected a limited number of priorities, these will become
your short-term goals or objectives. Decide how you are going to work on
them and what your timescale will be. If you are not sure how to achieve
a particular goal, or need further resources, seek advice from your tutor.
Table 4.3 shows how the answers to these questions can form an action
plan to help you work on the priorities. Once you have worked through
your action plan and you see the evidence you are looking for, you will
have every reason to feel pleased with yourself.

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Table 4.3 Short-term action plan to achieve priorities
Priorities
How?
When?
Evidence of
achievement?
Spell accurately
Install spellchecker
on PC.
By the end of
the month
When
handwriting,
check
systematically.
From now
onwards
Reduce the number
of tutor comments
about accuracy of
spelling by half on
next assignment
and to virtually nil
by the one after that!
Concentrate on
exercises related to
formation and use
of these tenses in
course book.
Over the next
two weeks
Use imperfect
and perfect
tenses accurately
and appropriately
Feel more conﬁdent.
Be able to explain
the formation and
use to others.
Get the answers
right (check in book).
Do the exercises
again.
In three to four
weeks time
Ask tutor to check
examples.
Write 10 examples
of my own using
each tense
separately.
From now
onwards
Take them along to
show colleagues and
discuss.
Look for and collect
examples of both
tenses used together.
Get it right in the
next assignment!
Task 4.7 Drawing up an action plan for your own
priorities
In Task 4.6 you identiﬁed some areas which you need to work on to achieve a
particular goal in your language learning.
Choose two or three of these as your priorities and draw up an action plan
similar to the plan in Table 4.3.
Comment
Some learners ﬁnd it keeps them motivated if they decide how they will reward
themselves once they have achieved a priority goal. If you do, you could add
another column for that purpose.

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REVIEWING YOUR GOALS
Achieving the short-term goals or objectives which you have prioritized
is an important step, but it is not the end of your journey. You need to
regard it as an ongoing process, and regularly draw up new priorities. If you
are following a course with assignments or coursework, you can take the
opportunity to get some speciﬁc feedback from your tutor about how your
work on these priorities has affected your performance. When you submit
your assignment or coursework consider including information for your
tutor along the following lines:
• the priorities you have worked on for this assignment;
• the things you think you have done well in the assignment and why
you think so;
• the things you had difﬁculty with and why;
• any other questions or comments about your work.
This will help your tutor to provide relevant feedback on issues which
concern you and relate to your individual priorities. If you do not have to
complete coursework or have more practical goals like those shown in the
ﬁrst part of Table 4.2, then you might seek feedback from another speaker
of the language, either locally or when you next visit the country, or from
your tutor at one of your classes.
To review your goals, you will need to pull together information from a
number of sources:
• your longer-term goals, motivation for learning the language and shortterm objectives;
• your assessment of your strengths and weaknesses in relation to the
short-term objectives;
• feedback on your performance from the sources described above.
You are then ready to select your next longer-term goal and identify the
steps which will help you achieve it, select your priorities and work out an
action plan to achieve them. Of course the process may not be clear-cut,
and at times you may feel you still need to work on elements which were
included in your previous list of priorities. The important thing is to make
decisions and actively plan how you will spend your time rather than ‘drift’
along. Make sure that once you are aware of what you want to achieve your
tutor or others are aware of it too, so that they can give you really useful
feedback.

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DEVELOPING GOOD LEARNING HABITS
Becoming aware of yourself as a learner, deciding on your long- and
short-term goals, monitoring your progress, assessing your strengths and
weaknesses, working out an action plan and regularly reviewing your goals
are all good learning habits to cultivate. It is also worth reviewing your
study patterns and learning strategies from time to time. Challenge yourself
with some of these questions:
• Does my study pattern work? Am I achieving what I want to this
way?
• Why do I study this way? Might there be a better way? What do others
do?
• What strategies do I use to remember vocabulary, or improve my
listening comprehension, for example? Are they working? Are there
other techniques I could try?
• Am I getting all the support I need? From my tutor? From my family/
work colleagues? From others? Who do I need to talk to about this?
What do my fellow learners think?
This approach may be very different from anything which you have tried
in the past and it is not something which everyone finds easy at first.
However, it is worth working at as the beneﬁts are long-lasting and can
save time in the long run, making the effort really worthwhile.
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLANNING
Chapter 2 talks about the value of keeping records. If you are following
any kind of formal learning programme in a college, institute or university,
you will probably be expected to keep a record of your long-term goals
and your progress towards them in the form of a Personal Development
Plan (PDP). Many other organizations use them too. The plans usually
include:
• a summary of your educational and career history;
• your long-term goals (what you want to achieve in your educational
programme or your career);
• a self-appraisal (examination of the qualities and personal resources and
skills which you have gained and those which you need to develop to
achieve your long-term goals);
• an action plan to enable you to achieve these goals;
• regular opportunities to review and evaluate your progress and to revise
your goals.

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As you can see, they follow the processes described in this chapter. The
concept of a personal development plan has been adopted by educational
institutions to help learners engage individually in a structured and
supported process of reﬂecting upon their own learning performance and/or
achievement for their personal, educational and career development. The
aim of these plans is to help learners to become more effective, independent
and self-conﬁdent learners. Such plans can be a great source of personal
encouragement, by helping you to see how much you have achieved over
a longer period of time, as well as providing the motivation to continue.
They may also help you to provide evidence for potential employers,
depending on your circumstances. The European Language Portfolio may
be worth considering as a framework for your own PDP. Full details are
given at: http://www.cilt.org.uk/elp.htm
You will ﬁnd more information on how portfolios are used for assessment
in Chapter 9, ‘What tasks constitute the assessment?’.
Many colleges and universities have their preferred methods for drawing
up personal development plans, but you could use a notebook, a computer
ﬁle or a set of ﬁle cards. Table 4.4 shows an example related to language
learning but it could include a wider range of personal and professional
goals and draw on evidence from study, work, domestic and leisure contexts.
Table 4.4 Example of part of a Personal Development Plan
What do I want
to achieve and
when?
What relevant
qualities, personal
resources and
skills do I have
already?
What do I need to
do to reach my
goal and how will
I do it?
What will be the
evidence for
achievement?
Learn enough
Arabic to be able
to ‘get by’ in
day-to-day
situations in
Egypt by the end
of next year.
Past experience
of learning another
language; the
motivation of a
possible job on an
archaeological
project in Egypt;
determination;
Arabic-speaking
friends.
Sign up for
beginners’ course;
get the book; decide
when I can put time
aside for study;
contact an
Arabic-speaking
friend and set up
a regular
‘conversation
session’ perhaps in
return for some help
with English; read
more about modern
Egyptian culture
and customs.
Certiﬁcate of course
completion; being
able to engage in
conversations with
my friends on
day-to-day topics,
getting positive
feedback from them
about my
performance.

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The process outlined in this chapter can help you to manage and control
your learning even when you are short of time. If you have a clear idea of
your priorities, you will be able to make decisions about what to concentrate on and what to leave for the time being. You can ask for feedback
specifically on these points rather than being overwhelmed with other
things to think about. It may not seem easy to start with, but with practice,
it will pay off by saving you time and making your learning more effective.
Summary of key points
• Question yourself about your learning, your approach to study and
the progress you are making.
• Identify priorities to enable you to achieve your short-term goals.
• Prepare an action plan showing how and when you will work on
your priorities and what evidence you will look for to show
achievement.
• Share your priorities with your tutor and/or others who can give
you feedback on them.
• Monitor your progress and review your learning in order to revise
your priorities.

93.
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Developing competence in the
language (1)
Reading and listening skills
Felicity Harper, Pete Smith and Tita Beaven
When you are learning a foreign language, listening and reading have a
dual purpose: any material you read or listen to is (1) a piece of information
from which you need to extract meaning – even if you are reading purely
for pleasure, and (2) a tool for improving your familiarity with and ability
in the language you are learning. It is worth keeping this distinction in
mind, as approaches which help you to work out the meaning of a given
extract may well be different from those you might use to improve your
understanding of the way the language works or how it sounds. Whatever
your purpose in listening or reading, the more you know about the processes
involved and the strategies you can use to support these processes, the more
successful you are likely to be.
BEING A REFLECTIVE LEARNER IN THE CONTEXT OF
READING AND LISTENING
As explained at the beginning of Chapter 4, becoming a reﬂective learner
is about developing an awareness of how you learn and using that knowledge to improve your learning. Course writers make use of their knowledge
about what language learning involves when designing learning materials.
Language tutors also use this knowledge to help them adapt materials to
the interests and needs of their group. Sometimes, however, it is not made
clear to the learner why things are being done in a certain way. The aim
of this chapter, therefore, is to give you some useful information to enable
you to improve your reading and listening by:

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•
•
•
•
Success with Languages
understanding what they both involve;
analysing a speciﬁc task;
familiarizing yourself with strategies that support the processes involved;
selecting the right strategies for the speciﬁc task;
evaluating the success of the strategies you choose.
WHAT DO READING AND LISTENING INVOLVE?
Reading and listening as processes
Although reading and listening are often referred to as ‘passive’ or receptive
skills, in reality both involve complex mental processing in order for the
reader or listener to make sense of the material. When you listen, for
example, you do far more than merely absorb sound. You may well have
experienced a situation where you have asked someone to repeat something
you did not hear, only to work it out before the other person has a chance
to repeat it. This is because your brain is busy processing what you have
heard and trying to make sense of it. You will be very skilled at this in your
own language, because you have a vast repertoire in your memory of things
people say in certain contexts, and the vocabulary and phrases related to
given topics. You also have an intuitive awareness of the way your language
works grammatically and structurally. This means that when you listen to
your own language, you do not need to hear every word, because you are
able to make sense of the whole. The same is true of reading.
Task 5.1 Filling in the gaps
Have a look at the following news extract from which some words have been
deleted. Can you supply suitable words for the gaps?
CCTV cameras have ______ ________ at a local shopping ________ in a ______
to crack _____ on hooligans _________ the area. Over the _______ year,
shopkeepers have _________ numerous attacks on their ________, with the
estimated cost to local trade in __________ of £60,000. The local council
_________ the cameras will act as a __________ to would be ________. If
vandalism does ________, police will be able to use the __________ to
__________ who is responsible.
(Answer at the end of this chapter.)

95.
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81
Comment
You may have been surprised at how many words you were able to supply.
This is because repeated exposure to this type of news report has embedded
the frequently used phrases, vocabulary and structures in your brain for this
type of text.
When you read or listen to material in the target language, even if you do not
understand every word of what you see or hear, you can often get the general
meaning from structures and vocabulary with which you are already familiar. If
you imagine the text above to be in the target language, for example, and the
gaps to represent the words you have not seen before, you can see that it is
possible to work out what a word might mean, even if you do not recognize it.
It is helpful to read or listen to a number of examples of the same type of
material in the target language and to note down the phrases and vocabulary
that regularly occur. This will help you to build up context and topic-related
vocabulary.
As well as information from your knowledge of the language and the
context, if you are able to see the speaker, you will also have other clues,
such as body language to help you work out what the speaker is saying. For
both reading and listening you may also have images or other information
which can contribute to providing a fuller picture.
What do reading and listening have in common and how do
they differ?
Linguists talk of approaches to reading and listening as ‘top-down’ and
‘bottom-up’.
• Top-down processing refers to activating prior knowledge of the subject
and using contextual clues, such as pictures, to aid comprehension, as
well as knowledge about how the language works structurally to predict
and interpret the content.
• Bottom-up processing is about using the input itself, recognizing
individual words and building these into phrases and then sentences.
Task 5.2 Top-down and bottom-up processes in action
1
Read the situation described below. Can you explain how the student
arrived at his answer? Why might the other students have been unable to
supply an answer?

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A group of 12-year-olds is having a French lesson, their faces screwed
up in concentration. They are coming to the end of a teaching unit about
buying clothes. Their teacher has told them that they are about to hear
a recording of a conversation in a clothes shop. What they have to do
is tell her what it is the customer asks for. During the extract, the
sentence: ‘Je voudrais un jean’ occurs (‘I would like a pair of jeans’). At
the end of the extract, the teacher looks around the class hopefully, but
is met by a sea of blank faces. Eventually, a hand goes up tentatively at
the back of the class. ‘Yes?’ says the teacher eagerly. ‘Is it . . . is it gin?’
the student asks.
Comment
This (true) example shows how important it is to combine top-down and
bottom-up processing to have the best chance of understanding something.
Knowing that the conversation took place in a clothes shop (contextual clue)
was not enough for most students to know what the customer required. On
the other hand, the student who ventured gin had processed the input je
voudrais un, recognized it as the key phrase prior to the content he required
and, hearing clearly the word jean, had used a strategy of thinking of what it
sounded like in English. But he did not check his idea against the whole context.
It made sense in terms of the sound input and of buying something in a shop,
but not of buying something in a clothes shop.
2
The example below is of a young child reading aloud in her ﬁrst language.
Can you explain what is happening here?
Sentence in reading book:
He’d opened the door and blown out the candles before Pip could get
there.
Child’s version:
He opened the door and blown – blew out the candles before Pip could
get there.
Comment
This is a good example of how our brain tries to make sense of the input
depending on our expectations, even disregarding the evidence of our own
eyes to do so. In this case, it doesn’t matter at all in making sense of the story,
but it shows how a slight slip in processing the input (here, misreading He’d as
He) can affect how we read the rest of the sentence. The child here knew that
He blown was wrong, so changed blown to blew despite what the printed word
said. This is worth bearing in mind when you are reading or listening in the target
language.

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In reading, bottom-up processing builds up from words to sentences; in
listening, however, it starts with sounds which you try to build into words
or phrases. One of the difﬁculties learners of a foreign language sometimes
have is being able to break up the stream of sound into words or phrases.
Even if you do not need to understand every word, you still need to hear
and recognize a sufﬁcient number of words and phrases to be able to make
some sense of what is being said. In fact, because of the way most people
learn a foreign language, you may ﬁnd yourself in the reverse situation to
that of young children learning to read. While children may understand
words and phrases that are spoken to them but not recognize these same
words written down, you may do the opposite, particularly if the words are
spoken quickly and are embedded in a long extract. For this reason, it is
useful to practise working out how words and phrases you have noted from
written material sound in speech. This is sometimes referred to as
developing a ‘listening vocabulary’. Try to ensure that development of your
listening vocabulary keeps apace with the written forms.
Another key difference between listening and reading is the time you
have available to process the material. With reading, you can reread
a section several times. With listening, on the other hand, unless there is
an opportunity to hear the extract a second time or you are involved in a
conversation where you can ask for clariﬁcation, you will have to recognize
words and phrases almost instantly, so that you do not miss what comes
next.
It is worth remembering that written and spoken language can be
different. Tourist brochures, newspaper reports and books generally include
chunks of text made up of complete sentences and well-thought out
paragraphs, as well as eye-catching headlines and slogans that can be difﬁcult for the foreign language learner to understand. Spoken language, in
contrast, is full of repetitions, false starts, hesitations and incomplete
sentences. When you listen, you need to recognize which phrases carry
meaning and which are ‘ﬁller’ words and phrases used to plug gaps or to
indicate hesitations. You can then build up a repertoire of these ﬁllers to
incorporate into your own speaking as appropriate (see Chapter 6, ‘Giving
yourself thinking time: using ﬁllers’).
WHY DO WE READ OR LISTEN AND WHAT MATERIAL
DO WE CHOOSE?
Reading
You may be an avid reader in your own language, in which case your
challenge is selecting what to read. On the other hand, reading may not
come naturally to you. In this case some strategies for simply getting down
to the task of reading and improving reading speed and comprehension
may be useful. When you are choosing your own materials, be selective –

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look for variety, short publications, including children’s books and
illustrated volumes, and possibly books with audio versions to accompany
them (see Chapter 7). Tourist brochures, leaflets and other documents
or texts that are familiar formats in your ﬁrst language can also be good
starting points where you will find common ground or cognates, such
as taxi, bus and cinema, as discussed in Chapter 3, ‘Making use of prior
knowledge’.
• Keep adding to the range of material you read in your own
language to match what you need to read in the target language.
This will help you to become familiar with the typical structure
of a range of material, so that you know what to expect in the
target language equivalent.
• Venturing into specialist areas, such as food and wine or environmental protection, or reading material from more highbrow
publications, such as serious newspapers or magazines, may also
help to increase your vocabulary.
Task 5.3 Why are you reading?
Have a look at the following list, and decide which of the statements you agree
or disagree with:
My reading in the target language is:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
for enjoyment, e.g. ﬁction and poetry;
for obtaining information;
to be done in a studious, private way;
quite hard work;
primarily a question of vocabulary;
not necessary for improving my language skills;
generally conﬁned to books with serious content;
something I prefer to do on my own;
an activity that involves absorbing words from pages.
Comment
If your study requires you to cover set books from the literary repertoire of the
language in question, then statements 1, 3, 4 and 8 amongst others could well
be true. If you are interested in tourism or travelling in the country whose

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85
language you are learning, then statements 2 and 9 might be more relevant,
while 1, 5 and 6 will be less valid. How and what you read depends on your
purpose, and you will know yourself that the different reasons for reading
include:
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
purely for pleasure;
gathering information;
learning about the target language culture;
research to inform ideas for writing tasks;
seeing the language in action;
learning new vocabulary in context;
pronunciation;
communicating with others (letters, emails, text chat).
There is no single right or wrong way to read, and how you go about
it will be a mix of elements that brings together your past experience,
your knowledge of the subject area, the time and resources you have available, the nature of the reading you choose to do, or have to do, and your
preferences as a learner. Computers and the Internet are bringing about
rapid changes in the way we see and read text, and as it is still a relatively
unexplored area of study, it is not entirely certain how these new forms
of text are affecting us in terms of reading. If you think about what you
do when you are online, it is often quite different from ‘traditional’ reading
– it can involve moving graphics, or audio and visual accompaniment,
several screens of text at the same time, links which are not linear but are
‘web-like’, and it is quite possible that you approach these using different
skills. You might like to compare how you read a book with what you do
on the Internet and see if there are any differences.
Listening
Although you are open to hearing what is going on in the world around
you, at times you will be able to select what you actually listen to. This
could be deciding to listen to a conversation taking place in a shop while
you wait in a queue or choosing a particular documentary to watch or a
speciﬁc section of your course material to listen to. At other times there
will be no such choice: you might need to pay attention to an announcement in a railway station or you might be asked a question. When someone
addresses you directly, you will need to use additional strategies to help you
clarify what was said (see Chapter 3, ‘Developing strategies to improve your
learning’, and Chapter 6, ‘Getting the message across’ for some examples).
One thing to bear in mind is that your ear may be so accustomed to your
own language that you may not perceive some of the sounds in another

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language. As well as adjusting to the rhythm, pronunciation and intonation
of the target language, you might also need to develop your ability to hear
the full spectrum of sounds it contains. Chapter 4, ‘How the language
sounds’, suggests some techniques to increase your awareness of the sound
patterns in the language you are learning. However, just as babies are
surrounded by the sound of their native language before they speak, so, as
a learner of a foreign language, you might beneﬁt from just absorbing the
sound in parallel to or before working on improving your comprehension.
Remember that all humans have a ‘silent period’ of up to two years while
there is input but no coherent output. As an adult learner, if you reduce
this to a matter of months, it represents a remarkable short cut!
• Subtitled videos, DVDs or films on television may be helpful,
whether the original version is in the target language or your
mother tongue. When the original version is in the target language, you have an immediate version in your own language in
the subtitle.
• With video and DVD you can replay scenes to capture pronunciation and useful phrases (see also Chapter 7). As you advance
in the language, you can hide the subtitles and then listen again
with the subtitles visible to check for anything you missed. You
can even turn off the sound and try to supply your own target
language soundtrack from the English subtitles.
• Subtitles are also often provided in the same language as the ﬁlm
for the beneﬁt of those with hearing difﬁculties, which can be of
enormous help to the foreign language learner. Where the original
version is in your mother tongue, on the other hand, and the
subtitle in the target language, you can pick up a lot of useful
phrases. In an English ﬁlm subtitled in Spanish, for example, you
might hear the word horse and see the word caballo.
HOW READING AND LISTENING ARE APPROACHED IN
COURSEBOOKS
Below are some descriptions of a number of different purposes for which
you might listen or read, and, where appropriate, some examples of the
types of exercises often devised by course writers or tutors to develop the
speciﬁc skills required in each case. Awareness of which skills are being
developed through speciﬁc exercises may help you to notice areas where
less practice is available and provide you with some ideas of how you can
work on improving these skills yourself.

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Reading or listening for information
You often read or listen to something in order to ﬁnd out some information.
‘Listening for information’ can be broken down into three different
categories:
Reading or listening for gist: getting an overview
When you listen to a newscast or documentary or even a conversation
between speakers of the target language, you may be interested not so much
in the precise details of what you are hearing but rather in the overall sense.
The same is true when you read news reports or magazine articles. You often
automatically disregard the details in order to keep a sense of the whole.
Typical exercises associated with reading and listening for gist include:
• summarizing in one or two sentences what the extract is about;
• ordering pictures as you listen or in accordance with the written text;
• selecting an appropriate title or a brief description from a list of
possibilities;
• making very brief notes (e.g. one word per paragraph);
• matching a heading to an extract (e.g. a headline to a short news item);
• identifying key points in paragraphs;
• putting jumbled pieces of a text in a suitable order.
Reading or listening for detail: engaging with the arguments
If you are trying to follow a complex argument, it matters that you understand the detail. This can be a demanding task in the target language. With
listening, you need to be able to understand and make sense of what you
hear as you hear it in real time, so that you can keep up mentally with the
discussion. In reading, you need to be able to understand what you are
reading and keep it in mind as you go on to read further. This type of
listening and reading is sometimes called ‘critical’ listening or reading.
Typical exercises associated with listening for detail include:
•
•
•
•
•
writing detailed summaries;
questions or incomplete sentences requiring detailed responses;
true/false questions which distinguish subtly between alternatives;
essay-style tasks synthesizing the information gleaned;
selecting the correct second half of a sentence from subtly different
possibilities;
• completing a cloze exercise (a text with words or phrases blanked out);
• making notes as you listen or read (e.g. 10 words per section).
Reading or listening for speciﬁc information
If you are waiting for a train and an announcement is made which mentions
your train, in your own language you are likely to ‘switch on’ to the rest of

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the announcement to hear what is said. This is the essence of listening for
speciﬁc information. It does not matter what the announcer says about any
other trains, you just need to listen out for your train. Similarly, if you are
looking at the opening times of a museum, you only need to recognize the
words related to conveying that particular piece of information. To practise
this type of reading and listening, coursebooks often use real-life material
which might be beyond your level of comprehension if you had to understand all of it. Typical exercises associated with practice in listening and
reading for speciﬁc information include:
• focused questions with one-word or short-phrase answers
• ﬁlling in tables with missing information
• completing sentences with a word or short phrase.
Exposure to new styles, vocabulary and linguistic practice
Another reason for choosing to listen to or to read a particular extract is
to improve your knowledge of vocabulary and structures, either to increase
your comprehension or to improve your own speaking or writing skills.
When listening, try to choose material which is relevant and which you
ﬁnd easily accessible. You will then be able to focus your attention not so
much on understanding what you hear but rather on assimilating appropriate words and phrases that you can reuse when you speak. Listening
awareness also includes developing a familiarity with the sound of the
language. Reading texts, on the other hand, provide an excellent resource
for ﬁnding out about the structure and grammar of the target language, and
you can learn a lot by analysing how things are written.
Exercises commonly associated with encouraging awareness of language
include:
Listening and reading
• ﬁnding the exact words used to express an idea;
• ﬁnding examples used to express opinion, disagreement, etc.
Reading
• deducing rules and usage of grammatical forms by identifying these in
the text;
• working on improving your vocabulary by reading a text and looking for cognates, collocations (words that go together in a particular
order, such as chalk and cheese; an almighty crash; pitch black), and words
related to each other, e.g. collide, collision; decide, decision (see Chapter
3, ‘Making use of prior knowledge’, and Chapter 6, ‘Remembering and
recalling words and phrases’);

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• working on improving your ability to deduce what words might mean
by working with cloze texts;
• developing your awareness of word formation or patterns between
languages to help you work out the meaning of words you have not
previously encountered.
Listening
•
•
•
•
•
ordering phrases which occur in the extract;
matching beginnings and ends of sentences;
using exercises with transcripts or cloze texts;
focusing on stress or intonation;
focusing on the sound of words, e.g. comparing and contrasting similar
vowel or consonant sounds;
• improving your listening vocabulary by working on recognition of
common phrases, ‘ﬁllers’ and expressions of hesitation.
Before and after you read or listen
Prominence is now given to teaching people how to listen and read and to
helping learners to develop conscious strategies for improving these skills.
One key aspect of this is what you do before and after you read or listen to
something. Typical exercises include:
Pre-listening and reading
• preparing to listen or read by anticipating vocabulary and phrases that
might occur;
• predicting what might be in the text from contextual clues;
• predicting answers to the questions set;
• analysing questions to consider how the answer might be phrased;
• setting your own questions or specifying what you want to gain from
the extract;
• predicting what the content might include from contextual clues, e.g.
pictures, titles, topic knowledge.
Post-listening and reading
• practising or extending examples of linguistic structures or grammatical
forms found in the text;
• reusing some of the language encountered, e.g. recording your own
version of what you heard, writing a letter based on the content of the
extract;
• analysing errors made, e.g. in listening, comparing completed cloze

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exercises with the original and noting misheard sounds to bear in mind
in the future;
• evaluating how successfully each task was achieved and considering
where the difﬁculties lay.
ACTIVE READING AND LISTENING
Prior knowledge of the topic, vocabulary and type of material
Chapter 3 shows you how you can make use of any prior knowledge you
have to help you learn a new language. If, when trying to understand
something, you know what the topic is or you know what type of material
is involved, you already have a wealth of information available to you to
help you. Before you read or listen to material in the target language,
therefore, it is worth considering what sort of format or structure it is likely
to have and the sort of vocabulary you should expect to ﬁnd.
Task 5.4 Using what you already know
Imagine you are watching the television news after a national team, in this case,
England, has just lost the World Cup. When this item is treated on the television
news:
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
What structure will the report have? How will it be introduced?
Who will you be listening to and what contribution will each person make?
What sort of information will you expect to be given?
What vocabulary or phrases would you expect to hear?
Comment
In terms of the format, you might expect some interaction between the reporter
and the newsreader: Yes, John, a terrible day for England . . . some interviews
with key people such as the players, the coach or the manager, and possibly
some banter and some jokes.
You would expect to ﬁnd out how the match developed and what the decisive
moments were, as well as an overall summary of the standard of play. There
will probably also be a discussion about who might be sacked.
There are certain words and phrases you might predict, such as: very
disappointing for the lads, just couldn’t bring it all together on the day and
maybe dismal performance for your team and on top form, a stunning tackle,
etc. for the other.

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Prior knowledge of commonly used words and phrases
As well as the topic-related vocabulary, there will also be phrases which
signal a change in the focus or a change of direction. In the football report
in Task 5.4, for example, these would include the phrase used by the
newscaster to hand over to the sports reporter, and phrases to signal the
beginning of an interview and the end of it. Such phrases are called
discourse markers and many are common to different contexts. Examples
to be found in discussions include phrases such as Let’s start with you, Mike
. . . and All in all then. . . . Awareness of these helps considerably with
ﬁnding your way through spoken and written material. As well as discourse
markers, spoken language abounds with words and phrases which occur
frequently in all types of exchanges. Examples include ‘filler’ words like
surely, actually, yes, but, the point is as well as expressions of hesitation, such
as well, um, let me see, etc., as explained earlier in this chapter.
Using clues and exercises to aid comprehension
If you are studying the language using a coursebook, you will probably ﬁnd
that listening exercises are preceded by some activities that prepare you
speciﬁcally for the extract you are about to hear. A similar approach is used
if you are about to tackle a particularly challenging written text. Typically,
pre-listening and pre-reading exercises will stimulate your prior knowledge
of the topic as well as of the language that is likely to occur in the extract.
The exercise questions also provide information on the structure and the
content of the material as well as on the language you might expect to hear
or read. In listening, for example, if a question asks: What time does the train
leave for Paris? you already know that part of the extract concerns a train
going to Paris. In this case, before listening, it would be helpful to consider
the different ways depart and arrive might be expressed and listen out for
these speciﬁc phrases in the material. This is generally easier than trying
to understand a large chunk of language. Similarly, questions beginning
with the word Why? suggest you could look out for part of a sentence beginning with a phrase such as because, or owing to.
Making predictions
A further step is to predict the answers. This is particularly helpful in
listening, if you have difﬁculty hearing what people say, as it helps to reduce
the number of possibilities to listen out for. It can also help if you are
reading a text. You will have to consider appropriate vocabulary and
structures for expressing the answers, and this helps to activate prior
knowledge and focus your mind on checking for precise phrases. In the
listening example above, you would need to consider the ways time might
be expressed in the target language in a railway announcement, and, if you
are working at a more advanced level, consider the possibility that the

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departure time could be announced as a delay. In French, for instance, you
would expect to hear the word heure in the middle of the time, as in dix
heures quinze. Because you now expect to hear that phrase, if it occurs in
the passage you are more likely to perceive it. This is a strategy you can
also use in a conversation in which you are requesting information or in
which responses are likely to follow a typical format with largely predictable
vocabulary.
It is important that while you are listening, you constantly check your
interpretation – in other words, you need to monitor the extent to which
your predictions were correct and consider what would make sense in terms
of the extract itself, as you discovered in Task 5.2.
Hypothesis-testing
In your own language, you are constantly making predictions of how a
sentence will unfold, using your knowledge of what would ‘ﬁt’ and revising
it as new information comes in. This depends on you having access to a
range of possibilities. In the target language, you may not actually have
encountered the vocabulary concerned before, so you may find the
following approach helpful. Imagine you are listening to an extract in the
target language about the conditions for renting a holiday home, which
include leaving it clean and tidy. You manage to hear Guests are asked to
_______ the kitchen ﬂoor with a _____. If this is a new area of vocabulary
for you, a good way to approach this would be to start with an educated
guess in your own language, look up the word in a dictionary and check
whether the target language equivalent fitted with the sound input.
Alternatively, you could consider all the possibilities for one of the gaps in
your own language, look these up in a dictionary and listen closely to see
which word was actually used. In the ﬁrst gap, this might turn out to be:
sweep, polish, clean or wash. Once you have established which it is, then
you can consider what you might have to use to complete the second gap.
If you are reading an extract without the help of a dictionary, the context
may help you to work out the meaning of an unknown word. Often, the
precise meaning of individual words will not be important, but on those
occasions where it is, you may be able to use knowledge of word formation
and how words are related between languages to help you decide which of
various possibilities is the meaning of the unknown word.
Strategies for understanding written material
There are a number of strategies you can try that are particularly useful
with longer and more challenging texts of particular interest to you. In a
classroom situation, you could work with other students or your tutor, but
even if you are learning independently, these strategies can still be of value
and it is worth trying them out for yourself. Despite their technical titles,
they describe processes that are quite simple to do:

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• semantic mapping involves describing the development of the main sense
units of a text – in other words what different sections of the text are
about and how these develop;
• structure glossing is a process of producing a diagram or chart of the
length of the text, the number of paragraphs, the type of language and
the development of the themes (or topics) in it;
• generative précising involves summarizing key ideas, which serves as a
springboard for comprehension.
Another way to engage with ideas is a strategy called Experience Text
Relationship (ETR) in which you match what you know with what you
ﬁnd in the text, in a way that consciously involves using your own experience. A common variation of this for classroom-based learning involves
discussing the title or theme before reading the text, and leads to a similar
engagement with the ideas it contains. These mapping approaches are
associated with the notion of ‘reading as a psycholinguistic guessing game’
where you generate a hypothesis (or ‘educated guess’) about what you are
going to read, following which you read and test out the theory, and then
you revise it in light of what you ﬁnd. There are various ways you can go
about this, including:
• making margin notes of keywords either before or as you go through
the text;
• brainstorming and mind-mapping the topic before reading, comparing
the text with these afterwards and adjusting your mind map accordingly.
This also provides a summary on the way;
• jotting down what you expect to encounter in the text, and revising it
as you go through;
• mapping out the ‘semantic structure’ of the text before you read it – a
sort of ﬂow chart of what you think might be the main themes or ideas.
All of these strategies are essentially processes that help you prepare to
read in more detail and become an active reader. You might like to try
these strategies with simpler texts with which you are familiar, for example
tourist brochures, letters and magazine articles, in order to develop an
understanding of how the processes work.
• Some research has shown that the reading strategies you have in
your ﬁrst language do not automatically transfer to the language
you are learning. This explains why reading can be frustrating in
a foreign language, and why some different strategies may well be
necessary.

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BECOMING FAMILIAR WITH THE SOUND OF THE
LANGUAGE
Language learners often feel that the language they are learning is spoken
much faster than their own, but often it is just that all the words seem to
merge into one another. The difficulty is in perceiving and recognizing
individual words or phrases. There are a number of reasons for this and
a range of strategies you might adopt to try to improve your ability in this
area.
Reconciling sound and spelling of the target language
In most cases, there is a difference between your own language in terms of
the relationship between sound and spelling and that of the language you
are learning. If you come across a new word, you will want to be able to
check its meaning in a dictionary or use other strategies, such as seeing if
it is a cognate, in order to find out what it means. So it is important to
spend time considering the way words are spelt and listening to how they
are pronounced.
A simple way to begin is to read the transcription as you are listening to
material and then replay the extract with your eyes shut. This will help
you to associate the written and spoken forms of the language and gradually
improve your ability to understand spontaneous speech.
Changes in pronunciation of words in different contexts
It is useful to note that words may be pronounced differently when they
occupy different positions in a sentence. They may ‘liaise’ with adjacent
words, so that the ﬁnal consonant sounds like the ﬁrst letter of the next
word or so that the ﬁrst letter of the following word sounds like the last
letter of the previous word, as in Task 5.5. Sometimes ﬁnal consonants or
even syllables disappear completely.
Task 5.5 How do words sound?
The following sentence in English illustrates some of these features. Try reading
it out loud:
Of the two of you, do you think it will be you or Marion who goes to the
Olympic Games in the end?
You may have noticed that:

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᭿
The word of could be pronounced ov or euv in its ﬁrst occurrence, but in
its second occurrence it will almost certainly be pronounced euv
᭿ of you is likely to sound more like a view and do you is likely to sound more
like dje
᭿ Olympic Games may sound like limpi’gaims and the end like theeyend.
Comment
As you can see, the pauses between sounds that you might expect to mark
individual words might not actually be between words at all, e.g. a / view. This
means that you may think you recognize a word or phrase and then try to
construct a meaning for the rest of the sentence around it, when it isn’t actually
there. These or similar inﬂuences on pronunciation occur in most languages,
though the examples here are in English.
• The range of possibilities for interpreting what you hear is one
of the reasons that listening to a text can be more difﬁcult than
reading the same text. There are a few simple rules, however,
about how sounds might change depending on the surrounding
language, and once you have become aware of what these are, you
can try out different ideas if you are having difﬁculty deciphering
what you hear.
Task 5.6 Hearing the right thing
Look at the sentences below. In each case the listener has misinterpreted
part of what was said. Try reading each sentence aloud and see if you can you
supply the correct phrase. What caused the misinterpretation in each case?
1
2
3
4
It’s a lot harder than I thought, mine due.
It was nice to see her eyes to the occasion.
The man resisted a rest.
There is wonky consideration here.
Comment
1 The listener was probably unfamiliar with the phrase mind you, so wrote
two words that exist in English and match the sound.

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2
3
4
The r of rise is swallowed, producing her eyes, which is also a more
common phrase. The listener was presumably unfamiliar with the phrase
to rise to the occasion.
The listener recognized the word a as introducing a noun. She or he was
probably unfamiliar with the phrase to resist arrest.
The listener may have always pronounced wonky as won and ky, so hears
this instead of one key. He or she was also seemingly unfamiliar with the
frequent use of the phrase one key . . . in various types of speech and
writing, and unaware that wonky is too informal for the context.
The importance of stress patterns for recognizing word
boundaries
Fluent speakers of a language know where to break up a stream of sound,
but for those learning the language, this can cause considerable difﬁculty.
One reason is that you may unconsciously apply the rules about the stress
and intonation patterns of your own language to the target language. In
English, for example, the stress tends to be placed on the ﬁrst syllable of
nouns or compound nouns, which can lead English native speakers to
assume that any stressed sound signals the ﬁrst syllable of a word, and to
misplace the word boundaries. Chapter 4, ‘How the language sounds’,
considers the impact of patterns of stress and intonation on meaning and
suggests activities to make you more aware of these patterns. Another
useful approach is to listen to how speakers of the language you are learning
use stress patterns from their own language. You will quickly notice where
the stress falls incorrectly in their pronunciation of your language and you
can apply that stress pattern when you are speaking their language.
ENGAGING WITH THE CULTURAL CONTENT
Awareness and appreciation of linguistic varieties
If you are about to listen to an interview with an Andalusian flamenco
dancer, you might expect them to speak with an Andalusian accent, and
being mentally prepared for this – marshalling all your prior knowledge
about what that linguistic variety of Spanish sounds like – may help you
make sense of it faster. When developing your listening skills, it is
important that you listen to people with different accents and to different
varieties of the language you are learning, so that you develop strategies to
cope with this.

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Awareness of style and register when reading and listening
Chapter 4, ‘The social and cultural role of the language’, explains what is
meant by language register, e.g. the differences between spoken and written
language, and the use of formal and informal language. When developing
your listening or reading skills in a target language, you will need to develop
an awareness of style and register. For instance, if you are reading a letter,
it is important to know if it is formal or informal, as this will contribute to
your understanding. Similarly, being familiar with different registers will
enhance your understanding of the target language. For example, if, as a
learner of English, you hear something like Bear with me while I put you
through, you will make more sense of it if you are familiar with the expressions and idioms used in ‘telephone language’. In your language studies,
you will be exposed to a whole variety of styles and registers to widen your
linguistic repertoire.
Discovering and analysing linguistic and cultural content
This is a skill you will develop throughout your studies, but it is important that you start thinking from the start what you can learn about the
language and culture from a written text or piece of spoken language.
For instance, you might want to ask yourself:
• What linguistic variety does the speaker use, and what does that tell
me about their background (geographical or social)?
• What is the style of the passage? Is the text literary, technical, factual?
What is the effect of any rhetorical features used, i.e. language used to
persuade or inﬂuence? (See Chapter 6, ‘Style and register’ for rhetorical
devices used for effect.)
• What can I tell about the register? What sort of text is it? Is it a telephone conversation, an announcement, a formal presentation? Is it a
newspaper advert, a letter from the bank, a dedication in a book? (See
again Chapter 6, ‘Style and register’.)
• What cultural information can I gain from the passage? If you are
listening to a customer ordering a meal in a restaurant, you will be
learning about the language used for ordering food, but ask yourself
what you can learn about the culture too: How formal is the language?
How is politeness expressed? Is the food ordered similar to or different
from the food in your country?
Understanding socio-cultural references and their implications
When learning a foreign language, you can explore listening and reading
material for all sorts of information about the culture and society in which
the language you are studying is spoken. You will also ﬁnd that it works the

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other way round: the greater your knowledge about the society and culture,
the more you will understand listening or reading material in the target
language.
Task 5.7 Linguistic or cultural knowledge?
Look at the menu below. A learner of English has underlined all the elements
they couldn’t understand. How would you explain them? Are the difficulties
linguistic or cultural?
A menu for a pub lunch:
The Royal Oak
The Green, Little Horwood
Menu
All-day breakfast
Jacket potatoes
Sandwiches
Ploughman’s lunch
Bubble and squeak
Sausage and mash
Sunday roast from the carvery
Ask your waiter for our selection of sweets from the trolley
Comment
You probably found that the meanings of the words used were dependent
on cultural knowledge. In other words, learners of English would be able to
ﬁnd a deﬁnition of all the words in a dictionary, but that would not help them
to understand what they mean on this menu. They would need to know, for
example, that an all-day breakfast is a cooked breakfast and that the Royal Oak
is a common name for a pub.
DEVELOPING STRATEGIES
Some of the strategies you will try out when you are listening and reading
will be useful where your main aim is speciﬁcally to understand what is being
said. Such strategies include drawing on what you know about the topic in
your own language and listening or reading for speciﬁc information. Other

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strategies, however, are designed to improve your overall ability in listening
to and reading the target language.
Creating your own activities for extra practice
Whatever your learning situation, you may ﬁnd it helpful to create extra
activities to give you more practice in specific areas. Not only will you
become more skilled at the aspects you have chosen, but also you may well
ﬁnd out more about the way you learn best.
It is helpful to begin by deciding what sort of material you would like to
use and what you hope to achieve. The Internet and digital broadcasting
have increased access to real-life material for a range of languages (see
Chapters 7 and 8), but even if you are limited to the material provided
with your course, you can still devise extra practice activities using the
material you have. You may at ﬁrst want to concentrate on improving your
skills within a very speciﬁc context – understanding numbers or directions,
for example, or you might want to focus on a speciﬁc form of language use,
such as advertisements or reports.
Selecting and evaluating your strategies
The focus of practice exercises in reading and listening can be:
• understanding what you are reading or listening to at the time, as might
be your aim in a real-life situation;
• improving your skills and language knowledge overall, possibly using
exercises that would not be suitable in real life.
Two examples are given below which show how you can use strategies
to develop these two aspects. Although reading is used to illustrate the ﬁrst
and listening the second, the processes suggested apply to both skills and
can be adapted to suit the slightly different demands of each as described
earlier in the chapter.
Example 1:selecting strategies to understand what you are reading
Table 5.1 shows a method you can try to help you decide how you are going
to approach a text, depending not only on what you hope to gain from
reading it, but also on how much you know about the topic and the
difﬁculty of the text.

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Table 5.1 Approaching a reading text
1 The pictures and headings
• provide a number of clues about the content;
• provide some indication about the content;
• are not very helpful.
2 The ﬁrst two sentences
suggest that this text
• contains mainly structures and vocabulary I will
understand;
• contains some structures and vocabulary I will
understand;
• contains many structures and much vocabulary I
will ﬁnd difﬁcult to understand.
3 This is a topic
• I know a lot about;
• I know about in general terms;
• I know virtually nothing about.
4 When I have read this
text, I hope to have
•
•
•
•
•
5 The strategy / strategies I
am going to adopt to read
this text is / are
• make margin notes of keywords as I go through
the text;
• brainstorm and mind-map the topic before
reading, and then compare the text with it
afterwards and adjust my mind map accordingly;
• jot down what I expect to encounter in the text,
and revise it as I go through;
• ‘map’ the structure of the text before I read it;
• read the text and make a summary at the end of
what I found in it;
• write some questions to answer in advance;
• think of speciﬁc details I want to ﬁnd out before
reading;
• read the text quickly once, then adopt one of the
other strategies above.
6 I expect to have to read
the text
• quite superﬁcially, looking purely for speciﬁc
information;
• quickly, just to get a rough idea of what it is
about;
• carefully, trying to ﬁnd detailed information;
• carefully, trying to understand virtually
everything;
• critically, following arguments and forming my
own view;
• once;
• several times.
identiﬁed some key points;
found out some speciﬁc details;
got the gist of what it was about;
answered some speciﬁc questions set in advance;
found out enough to talk or write about the
content in some detail.

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Task 5.8 Choosing appropriate strategies
1
2
Choose a text you would like to read. Look at the ﬁrst column in Table 5.1
Approaching a reading text and select the phrase from the second column
that most accurately describes what you think.
Try out the strategies you have identiﬁed as being appropriate in response
to item 5, Table 5.1. When you have ﬁnished, ask yourself:
᭿
Did the strategies I chose help me to achieve my aim in reading this
text?
᭿ Did the strategies I chose help me to do other things I hadn’t planned
for?
᭿ What other strategies could I have used?
᭿ Would the strategies I used be helpful in another context?
Are there other questions you could ask yourself before deciding how to go
about reading a text?
How could you adapt this table to help you approach a listening extract?
Comment
Once you have become familiar with this method, you should be able to scan
a text and make these decisions automatically.
Example 2:improving your skills and language knowledge overall
This second example shows how you can use a range of exercises with
listening material related to one topic. Different exercises help to develop
specific skills, all of which contribute to you becoming a better listener
overall. The topic used here is one most suitable for beginners, but this can
be varied as appropriate. At higher levels you might want to choose various
types of listening material all related to one topic.
The approach follows the sequence below:
1
2
3
4
5
select a topic and decide what your purpose in listening is;
select appropriate pre-listening activities;
select appropriate listening activities;
select appropriate post-listening activities;
review how successful the approaches (strategies) you chose were in
helping you to achieve your purpose.

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Selecting a topic
A topic which occurs early on in many course materials is the
weather. This is an ideal area to start with for the following reasons:
• If you have access to the Internet, you will be able to ﬁnd weather
forecasts in written form, generally with picture support and
possibly speech.
• You can ﬁnd written reports in newspapers.
• You may be able to hear weather forecasts on your radio.
• If you have satellite or cable television, you may be able to watch
weather forecasts at home.
• If you are studying a course, you will probably have material in
your coursebook which you could refer to or reuse in a different
way.
• Weather forecasts generally follow a standard format and use a
limited range of structures and vocabulary.
• Weather forecasts follow a similar pattern in a number of
languages.
Selecting appropriate pre-listening activities to suit your purpose
Before you select activities to do before listening, consider why you
might be listening to something and what you hope to gain from it.
Make sure you include reasons why you might do so in real life as well
as reasons you might do so for practice. Examples relevant to a
weather forecast could include:
• I want to know what the weather will be like in a certain area
tomorrow afternoon.
• I want to know where within a two-hour drive it will be dry all
day tomorrow.
• I want to learn and be able to recognize the sort of phrases that
weather reporters use.
• I want to become better at hearing what they actually say even if
I do not fully understand what it means.
• I want to become familiar with the structure of spoken weather
forecasts.

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Task 5.9 Selecting pre-listening activities
Study the list below of typical pre-listening activities you might encounter in
course materials:
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
‘Word storm’: write down any vocabulary that comes to mind related to the
topic, consulting a dictionary for expected but unknown vocabulary.
For a topic with a limited range of typical phrases (e.g. booking a hotel
room), write a list of these to listen out for and tick them off as you hear
them.
Note typical phrases in your own language to listen out for in the target
language.
Note down the key points of a talk you would give about the topic.
List the sorts of phrases people might use to structure the material
(discourse markers).
Set yourself some questions to answer in advance.
Read something related to the topic.
Look at any clues provided in advance. Note down what they tell you about
the extract and what they indicate you can expect to hear. A news event,
for example, will contain information about when, where, why and how it
happened and who was involved. Note down the phrases that might be
used to express this information.
If you have a transcript available, create a cloze text by scanning the text
into a computer cloze programme, or by blanking out the last word of every
line yourself, making sure you don’t read it too carefully. Then, either listen
to the extract and try to ﬁll in what is missing or start by reading your cloze
text and predicting what goes in the blanks. This second activity helps you
to activate top-down processes (thinking about what would make sense
grammatically and in terms of the context) before you listen and then to
modify your predictions in the light of the sound input.
Now ask yourself:
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
Which activities would be useful before listening to an extract?
Are there any that could be adapted to make them useful?
Are there any other ways of preparing?
Can any pre-listening activity be used as preparation or does it depend on
what you hope to gain from listening to the material you have chosen?
Comment
Predicting what goes in the blanks of a cloze text can help prevent you
becoming overloaded, while trying to process what you hear at the same time

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as new input is coming in. If you have predicted something and you hear it, then
the exercise helps to increase your listening vocabulary; if, on the other hand,
what you hear does not match what you thought, then you will have to think
again. This involves exactly the sort of top-down process so important in making
sense of material, but you are helping your brain along by having already
considered consciously what sort of word or phrase would ﬁt.
It is important that you vary the activities you use, as this will help you to work
out when particular exercises are more beneﬁcial and will ensure you develop
a range of skills necessary for understanding the spoken language in real life.
Reading a transcript before listening, for example, may help you develop your
ability to hear exactly what people say, but it does not help you improve your
ability to focus on key points. A better option would be setting yourself some
questions to answer in advance or noting speciﬁc aspects to listen out for.
It is worth making a note of any other activities you come across that you
ﬁnd useful. Try out ideas of your own – this is all part of being a reﬂective learner
and taking charge of your own learning.
Selecting appropriate listening activities
Some learners ﬁnd it helpful to listen to the whole extract ﬁrst to ‘get
a feel for it’ whilst others prefer to start straight away on doing some
sort of task. It may well depend both on such preferences and on the
difﬁculty of the material and what you are hoping to understand.
Task 5.10 Which activities for which purpose?
Below are some suggestions for activities you could use when listening to
recorded material. Have a look back at the various reasons why you might want
to listen to a weather forecast. Which activities below do you think would be
most useful in each case?
Using your pre-listening activities
᭿
Tick off as you hear them words and phrases from your word storm,
opinions you predicted, discourse markers, e.g. The outlook for the evening,
on the other hand . . . , All in all, then . . . or the key points of your talk.
᭿ Decide whether there were points you would have included but which were
omitted.

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᭿
᭿
᭿
105
Answer the questions you set in advance.
Complete your cloze exercise.
Listen out for the speciﬁc aspects you identiﬁed in advance.
Focusing on what you hear
Working on content
᭿
᭿
Write down all the weather you hear mentioned and only that.
Play the recording once without pausing and afterwards note down what
you remember about it/what words you heard.
Working on language
᭿
Write a short transcript of a section or note down some phrases you hear.
Compare them to written forecasts and look for phrases which appear to
correspond.
᭿ Note new vocabulary.
᭿ Concentrate on pronunciation and stress.
Working on cultural aspects
᭿
᭿
Note who presents the forecast (age, gender, etc.).
If you are watching a television broadcast, note the body language and style
of the presentation.
Using contextual clues
Make use of any visual clues during the extract. Note down or bring to mind
phrases and vocabulary related to the visual clues. A television weather forecast,
for example, will not only normally have a map with symbols but also a presenter
pointing to the precise part of the map to which he or she is referring.
Prediction and educated guesses
Use your knowledge of phrases and collocations (such as heavy rain, gale-force
winds, thunder and lightning) to consider what might work in the gaps you
cannot decipher, e.g. Temperatures will soar to a ______ high this afternoon.
(record). Check your ideas by listening again.
Transcription
Write a transcription of a small section of what you are listening to. Write down
what it sounds like the ﬁrst time you hear it. Listen again and when you feel you

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have understood as much as possible, write a second transcription. When you
have ﬁnished listening to the whole extract and have ﬁnished the other exercises,
go back and listen to the small section again and write a final transcription.
Compare your ﬁrst with your ﬁnal transcription and consider the differences. If
you have a transcript available, compare this with your interpretation. Highlight
the differences and look for patterns. For example, did you make the same type
of mistake twice or more? What was the mistake and what can you learn from
it? Make a note of these mistakes and your conclusions and when you listen
to something else, apply what you have learnt from your previous exercise.
Using a computer to play your extract
If you have a precise counter display, you may be able to replay an exact section
of text you are at ﬁrst unable to understand, even down to a single syllable. You
can also break up the extract into different chunks, trying out new places where
a word might begin, for example. If you vary the length of the chunk of sound
you replay, you may even ﬁnd that it suddenly comes to you what the person
is saying – this is because your brain is using all the contextual and linguistic
information available to try to make sense of the extract. You can think of it as
like looking at a photograph of something taken at an unusual angle – a tiny
piece of new information can make a tremendous difference and suddenly it
becomes clear to you what the picture is.
Checking your interpretation as you go
As you listen and begin to understand what you are hearing, check whether
your interpretation makes sense grammatically and in terms of the content. If
you think you hear a heatwave and snow storms forecast for the same region
on the same day, you will need to think of some explanations. Was the forecaster using the past tense to talk about snow storms at this time of year in
1953 or did you confuse snow storm with thunder storm?
Comment
The essential thing is to remember that different activities develop different
listening skills. Whenever you listen, think of how best you can achieve your
particular aim at the time.

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Selecting appropriate post-listening activities
Try to stay alert to what else you can learn while you are listening.
If you noticed that you tend to hear a p as b make a note of it, so that
you can consciously check when you listen to material in the future.
You could also record yourself saying part of the extract or particular
phrases, doing your best to mimic the native speaker so that you ﬁx
in your mind how they sound. Try to pick out some key structures,
phrases and vocabulary that you can include in your own language.
If you have come across new vocabulary and structures that might
occur in future material but which are beyond what you would hope
to use yourself, you will also want to make a note of these.
Here are a couple of examples of ways you can reuse the vocabulary
and phrases you have encountered to ﬁx them in your mind:
• Write a postcard to a friend incorporating the information and
structures in the extract, tell him/her about your holiday, what
the weather is like and what your plans are for the rest of the week
based on the forecast.
• Record a weather forecast from the television. Watch the sequence
with no sound and try to provide the soundtrack yourself, either
spontaneously or by making notes ﬁrst.
Reviewing how successful your strategies were
Finally, ask yourself as before:
• Did the strategies I chose help me to achieve my aim in listening
to this text?
• Did the strategies I chose help me to do others things I hadn’t
planned for?
• What other strategies could I have used?
• Would the strategies I used be useful in another context?

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Task 5.11 Adapting listening strategies for reading
Have a look back at the listening example (Example 2: improving your skills and
language knowledge overall). How could you adapt this approach to apply to
reading skills? Some listening activities concentrate on the sound of the
language. Can you think of any exercises that would be speciﬁc to reading?
Comment
You might want to try some reading activities that consider the formation
of words, e.g. identifying all the cognates in a passage and considering
how they differ from their equivalents in your mother tongue – is there any
pattern? You could also work with cloze texts or use material familiar to you in
your own language to build up your vocabulary or awareness of grammatical
structures.
Summary of key points
• There is a difference between reading and listening in real life and
doing so for practice.
• You can use listening and reading material to focus on:
– understanding what you are reading or listening to in order to
grasp the global meaning or to understand specific information;
– improving your overall ability in the skill you are practising;
– developing other language skills, such as writing and speaking;
– learning about the language – its syntax, grammar and vocabulary;
– increasing your awareness of the cultural aspects of language
and the target language culture.
• You can use your knowledge of the mental processes that reading
and listening involve to make conscious decisions about how you
read and listen depending on your purpose.
• You can transfer and adapt the general principles to other areas
of your language learning.

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Answer to cloze text in Task 5.1
CCTV cameras have been installed at a local shopping centre in a bid to
crack down on hooligans in the area. Over the last year, shopkeepers have
suffered numerous attacks on their premises, with the estimated cost to
local trade in excess of £60,000. The local council hopes the cameras will
act as a deterrent to would be vandals. If vandalism does occur, police will
be able to use the footage to identify who is responsible.

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6
Developing competence in the
language (2)
Writing and speaking skills
Lina Adinolﬁ, Christine Pleines, Felicity Harper,
Tita Beaven, Pete Smith, Xavière Hassan,
Helga Adams and Margaret Nicolson
While Chapter 5 focuses on how to improve your understanding of the
language, Chapter 6 is about the skills of speaking and writing, which form
the other side of the coin when it comes to successful communication.
Speaking and writing are often called active or productive skills, which complement the receptive skills of listening and reading. Being able to express
what you want to say can be one of the most rewarding achievements when
studying a language. Whether you are a complete beginner or an advanced
learner, this chapter aims to help you ﬁnd effective ways of doing so.
The ﬁrst sections of this chapter contain information about acquiring
vocabulary for active use, improving the accuracy and ﬂuency of your language and interacting effectively. Later sections concentrate on structuring
your speech or writing and on making you aware of different conventions
and styles. Some of the ideas and techniques introduced will be particularly
useful at the earliest stages of language learning, while others are aimed at
more advanced learners who are dealing with more complex situations and
tasks.
Finally, and most importantly, the chapter presents strategies for
developing different aspects of your speaking and writing and for evaluating
your skills.
REMEMBERING AND ACTIVATING YOUR VOCABULARY
Building up a store of vocabulary is an essential aspect of developing your
speaking and writing skills, as it will enable you to express yourself more
effectively and appropriately in the range of different situations that you
will encounter.

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Passive and active vocabulary
Learners often assume that they either know or do not know a particular
feature of the language they are mastering. However, there are different
levels of knowing language. In your mother tongue you may be able to
follow a seventeenth-century play, read technical instructions and understand speakers with accents different from your own. You are not, however,
likely to produce this range of language yourself. This is entirely normal
and applies to the languages you are learning as well. You will always be
able to understand more than you can say in any language, whatever your
level of ability. A distinction is therefore often made between your passive
vocabulary – the words and expressions that you recognize but do not
actually use – and your active vocabulary, the subset of these items that
you regularly produce.
Much of the vocabulary that we acquire – whether in our mother tongue
or a new language, for either passive or active use – is picked up from the
spoken or written language that we encounter around us. There are many
different sources of this input, as it is known. Learners following a course
often rely on the course materials for most of their input. Yet valuable,
wide-ranging language is also available from many other sources, such as
ﬁlms, songs, conversations, letters or literature.
Being selective
When reading and listening, you will be concerned with your understanding of particular vocabulary and expressions. When speaking and
writing, in contrast, you will need to recall and produce some of this
language. Yet, rather than attempting to learn every new word or expression you come across, it is important to be selective in identifying which
items will be most immediately useful to you at your current stage of
learning. For general purposes, frequently occurring items or those which
cover a wide range of meanings are more likely to be useful, particularly at
an early stage. Your individual interests and needs will also inﬂuence your
choice.
Task 6.1 Being selective
Make a note of the areas of language that you are most likely to ﬁnd immediately
useful at your current stage of learning. Depending on your level and needs,
this may range from buying goods from a market stall, to negotiating a business
deal on the phone, to exchanging emails on a particular hobby via the Web.
You may ﬁnd that you require certain forms of language for speaking activities,
and others when writing is involved.

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Pairs and strings of words
Although words are usually listed as individual items in dictionaries, they
very rarely occur in isolation in real life. Chapter 5, ‘Exposure to new styles,
vocabulary and linguistic practice’, introduces the concept of collocations
– words that have strong connections with other words – and how
knowledge of these can often help you understand what you hear: Sweet
dreams! a deep breath; stop dead; Happy Birthday! are all common examples.
There are no rules; they simply sound right, whereas plausible alternatives,
such as Merry or Enjoyable Birthday! sound odd. Look out for examples in
the language you are learning; the use of simple collocations can make a
relatively new learner sound very natural.
It is not only idiomatic pairings that matter; there are longer strings
of words too. English is full of expressions like how d’you do? keep in
touch; not at all; by the way; hang on a minute; Kind regards. Every language
contains large numbers of set phrases such as these. They occur in both
spoken and written language, though some will be speciﬁc to one or the
other. Common examples in other languages include: Wie geht’s? (Ger);
Non mi piace . . . (It); Qu’est-ce que c’est? (Fr); ¿Cómo te llamas? (Sp) Τι
′
να κανουµε; (Ti na kánoume?) (Greek) = What can we do?
(Istana daqeeqa!) (Arabic) = Just a minute!
Competent speakers of the target language rarely compose sentences
from scratch, one word at a time. They do not have to think about the
language they need to communicate a message, and regularly incorporate
set phrases into speaking and writing. As with collocations, set phrases are
integral to language use and the key to accuracy and fluency. The trick
therefore, from the earliest levels of learning, is to look beyond individual
words, to take note of their common combinations with other words and
to try to use them actively when you speak or write.
Remembering and recalling words and phrases
It is reassuring to know, as pointed out in Chapter 1, that you can get quite
far with the 1,000 or so most frequently occurring words in a language.
You should not expect to be able to meet a new word or expression and
immediately incorporate it into your active vocabulary. This may happen
sometimes, but more often it is the words and expressions that you have
already come across several times that eventually ‘stick’ and become part
of your own repertoire. You can help this process along by using a range of
techniques to record, organize, practise and recall the words and expressions that you identify as important to you. A number of techniques
are listed below. You will need to experiment with different techniques to
ﬁnd out what works best for you. If you respond better to aural stimuli, for
example, you will tend to focus on the sounds of the language that you are
learning and remember items best when you hear them or repeat them

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orally, or say them aloud to yourself when you read them. If you prefer visual
stimuli, you will respond better to written forms of language, recalling
them best through reading on the one hand and writing them down on the
other. You may wish to review Chapter 1, which describes the importance
of identifying what type of learner you are so that you can study to your
best advantage, and Chapter 4, which encourages you to develop your
awareness of what works best for you.
Noting words and phrases
There are many different ways of recording and organizing new vocabulary
and expressions. You will need to decide whether to record new vocabulary
in written or oral form. This will depend partly on your preferred learning
style and partly on whether you are more concerned with writing the
language or speaking it. Written records may be kept in a dedicated notebook or computer ﬁle, while oral records will need to be recorded onto a
cassette or mini disc. It is, of course, possible to combine both methods.
Chapter 3, ‘Different ways of making notes’ gives ideas for storing
vocabulary, through the use of lists and mind maps. In some cases, instead
of translations, it is possible to note down synonyms (words that mean the
same as other words) alongside particular words or expressions. Synonyms
for the word happy in English might include: contented, pleased, delighted,
glad, thrilled, and in Italian: contento, felice, lieto, allegro. Some words will
also have opposites or antonyms such as this example in Spanish: económico
(economical) – costoso (expensive). Be careful here, however. In the same
way that the opposite of the English word light could be dark, heavy or
serious, so may words in other languages have more than one antonym,
depending on their meaning in a particular context.
Organizing words and phrases
Whether recording vocabulary in writing or orally, there are several
possible ways of organizing it in order to recall the words and phrases you
need more easily. Whichever way you choose, it should be easy to add new
items as you meet them. Here are some examples:
• Organizing vocabulary and expressions according to particular topic
areas or situations. These will depend on both your level and interests.
Examples of groupings might be food and drink, modes of transport,
environmental issues, etc.
• Grouping vocabulary in terms of word families. In English the words
believe (verb), (dis) belief (noun), (un) believable (adjective), unbelievably
(adverb) and beyond belief are all part of the same family. Other examples might be: (1) based on the word for rich in Italian: ricco (rich), la
ricchezza (wealth), arrichirsi (to get rich), ricco di vitamine (full of
vitamins); (2) based on the word for head in German: Kopf (head),
Kopfweh (headache), kopfrechnen (to do mental arithmetic), Hals über

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Attention, travaux!
Pendant les travaux
le magasin restera ouvert
le parti travailliste
britannique
les travaux de
la ferme
un travailleur (nom)
travailleur (adj.)
il a un travail
intéressant
travailler
à domicìle
TRAVAIL (m.)
TRAVAUX (pl.)
J’ai un travail
fou en ce moment
travailler dur
travail à plein temps
travail à mi-temps
travailler
être sans
travail
Figure 6.1 Grouping vocabulary according to word families.
Kopf (head over heels). You could set out these word families as in the
example in French in Figure 6.1, based on travail (work), travailler (to
work) and travailleur (worker).
• Organizing language in terms of its structure or use. This might be
particular verb types, for example. You could also group discourse
markers in the foreign language: ﬁrst of all, however, in contrast, the point
is, in conclusion (see Chapter 5, ‘Active reading and listening’), and
expressions of hesitation corresponding to well, you see, you know, um.
Memorizing words and phrases
Try to take every opportunity to reinforce the vocabulary and expressions
that you have recorded, for example:
• Repeat items aloud or write them out several times to ﬁx them in your
memory from the start.
• Make associations between these words or expressions and any others
you know, whether in your mother tongue or the target language itself,
to aid recall, e.g. conseiller/un(e) conseiller(ère) (Fr); to counsel/counsellor
(Eng).
• Use regular mini self-tests to reinforce the recall of new language:
– re-translation: if you have recorded items with a translation, you
can use the translation as a prompt to recall the original word or
phrase. You can do the same with opposites or synonyms;

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– brainstorming: the random recall of items relating to a particular
topic, such as sport or music, or those associated with a particular
structure such as verbs which combine with mit in German;
– collocation pairs: test yourself by using one part of a collocation to
elicit the other part e.g. Sweet . . . dreams! a remote . . . possibility;
– set phrases: a number of set phrases are associated with particular
situations. Test yourself by matching a situation with a given phrase,
e.g. for introductions: Freut mich Sie kennenzulernen (Ger); Μια
′
χαρα (mia hará) (Greek). Alternatively you can test yourself by
matching one set phrase with an appropriate set response e.g.
Muchísimas gracias – De nada (Sp); Many thanks – Don’t mention it/
you’re welcome (Eng).
– using the items in context: this will help both your accuracy and
fluency (see the section on this later in this chapter). A useful
exercise is taking a particular word or expression and inventing a
new sentence in which it might be used. Again you can say the
sentence aloud or write it out, as you wish.
Using knowledge of your mother tongue
If English is your mother tongue, you can make use of the history of the
English language when learning some of the other European languages.
What is generally considered ‘everyday’ vocabulary tends to come from
German, while more formal equivalents or related terms often come from
Latin or French, to which Spanish, Italian, etc. are related:
begin
beginnen (Ger)
commence
commencer (Fr), comenzar (Sp)
King
König (Ger)
royal, royalty, regal
roi (Fr), rey (Sp), rex (Lat)
answer
reply, respond, response, responsive
antworten (Ger) répondre (Fr), responder (Sp), respondere (Lat)
Highlighting all the cognates in a text in the target language and writing
out the equivalent in English or another language you know can help you
identify patterns in the way spelling changes between languages. You can
draw on these when trying to remember or ‘construct’ items of vocabulary.
Using the cognates above, for example répondre, responder, you might
wonder whether the French é generally corresponds to the Spanish es, a
theory you could then check and refine or refute by looking for further
examples, such as école – escuela (school).
Sometimes, where French and Spanish verbs consist of one word,
German uses a separable verb or a verb followed by a preposition. English
often has the equivalent of both to express the same concept. You can ‘put
up with’ something or ‘tolerate’ it, for example.

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Task 6.2 Using cognates
Have a look at the table below and ﬁll in the gaps with the alternative verb in
English.
English phrasal
verb or verb
with preposition
English
single
verb
French
Spanish
austeilen
try out
German
distribute
distribuer
distrubuir
tenter
tentar
entrer
entrar
discuter
discutir
ausprobieren
hereinkommen
talk about
sprechen über
enter
Comment
Make use of any knowledge you have of word formation in the foreign language
and what you know about cognates to help you work out or ‘create’ the word
you need. Practise paraphrasing (expressing things in different ways) in your
own language as well as in the target language, so that you become adept at
thinking on your feet as you speak.
PRONUNCIATION AND INTONATION
Pronunciation
Unlike other elements of a foreign language, such as grammar and vocabulary, which you will encounter progressively throughout your language
studies, pronunciation is an aspect of language learning in which you are,
as it were, thrown in at the deep end. However, don’t forget that in most
languages, there are only between 30 and 50 different sounds, and that
most of them will be familiar to you already from your mother tongue. You
may nevertheless encounter completely new sounds that don’t exist in your
own language, such as the French u in super, or the Spanish rr in terraza.
You will also ﬁnd that the subtle differences in familiar sounds can be just
as problematic, such as the o in Spanish rosa which is similar to the o in
cot, but which English speakers tend to pronounce like the oe in toe.
Intonation
Practising pronunciation is important because it enables you to get to grips
with the speciﬁc sounds of the target language. But intonation, too, plays
a central role, as illustrated in the following examples. It can:

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• indicate emotions: intonation can express anger, interest, impatience,
openness and many other attitudes and emotions. Try to express your
emotions in the foreign language to make your speech more varied and
less monotonous. You could try the following English sentence for
practice, using the appropriate intonation to express anger, interest and
impatience in turn: What are you doing?
• provide information on the grammatical structure of speech. For
instance, it can be used to differentiate a statement from a question,
e.g. You’re coming and You’re coming? or used to indicate an unﬁnished
sentence: Well, I don’t know what to say . . .
• give prominence to specific elements by stressing certain words, e.g.
He’s meeting the director in Shefﬁeld on Wednesday morning or I didn’t say
it was wrong (I think it might be right) and I didn’t say it was wrong
(someone else did).
Improving your pronunciation and intonation
You will probably encounter a whole range of approaches to developing
your awareness and your ability to reproduce sounds and words in order to
communicate. These might include:
• ‘Listen and repeat’ exercises or drills: these exercises may focus on
speciﬁc words or longer units, such as phrases or sentences. They are
useful in helping you get your tongue round new or unfamiliar sounds
or combinations of sounds. You might want to look at yourself in a
mirror, feel your mouth and your throat when you practise new sounds,
or record yourself and listen carefully to check your pronunciation.
There are a number of electronic resources you can use to practise your
pronunciation, including CD/DVD-ROMs, and web-based (CALL)
materials (see Chapter 8).
• Phonetic training: explanation of how particular sounds are articulated,
often illustrated by a diagram of the (relative) positions of the mouth
and tongue, as in Figure 6.2.
• Use of the phonetic script, a way of representing the sounds in language
– often used in dictionaries to help with pronunciation.
• Awareness-raising activities such as those suggested in Chapters 4 and
5: comparing the similarities and differences between the sound systems
of your own language and the foreign language, or focusing on speciﬁc
sounds in words.
• Reading aloud or listening to mini-dialogues to become aware of or
practise pronunciation or intonation patterns in, for example, questions
or statements.
Do not feel you have to measure yourself against the ﬂuent speakers you
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Articulación de [rr]
Figure 6.2 Diagram of how the sound [rr]
is pronounced in Spanish.
to have an accent that is not identical to any given native accent, and
indeed trying to imitate precisely the pronunciation of a mother tongue
speaker can be a demotivating and unrealistic goal: it is far more important
to concentrate on making yourself understood. It is also important to
remember that native speakers may use a whole range of different varieties
of the language, and have different accents, all of which are equally valid.
A good language course should be presenting you with a variety of regional
accents so that you are able to communicate with any speaker of the
language.
ACCURACY AND FLUENCY
The terms accuracy and fluency are often contrasted with one another
when referring to speaking or writing in another language. Accuracy refers
to the use of correct grammatical forms and vocabulary. Fluency is concerned with communicating spontaneously and with ease. The two are
complementary – each having a role in making yourself understood.
In the past, approaches to language teaching focused primarily on
accuracy or ‘getting things right’, through formal exercises or drills, for
example. Learners often found that real-life communication was difﬁcult,
even though they might ‘know the rules’. By contrast, people who have
learned a language through living in an environment in which it is spoken
are often able to use the language ﬂuently and spontaneously, if at times
not entirely accurately. Typically then, if you focus exclusively on accuracy,
you may jeopardize some of your ﬂuency and vice versa. With practice and
over time both will become more closely aligned, so that increasingly you

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are able to speak or write both accurately and fluently. Contemporary
language courses recognize the importance of balancing the two, incorporating tasks which focus on producing language accurately, as well as
those which encourage freer language production. It is important that you
work on getting the sounds of the language right, but you must also think
about the other elements that will make you sound ﬂuent, such as being
able to use common set phrases and discourse markers, as described earlier.
The following are some activities you could try.
Using model texts
Model texts may take the form of oral recordings or written scripts. They
can range from individual phrases to longer texts such as dialogues or
speeches. Some recorded texts are designed to allow time for you to repeat
given phrases, perhaps providing you with a further repetition of the
expression for comparison. Even if this is not the case, you can still pause
and repeat selected phrases yourself, and then listen to your efforts to see
where you can improve.
Spoken and written model texts may also include gaps for you to
complete with suitable words or expressions. This may involve changing
words from singular to plural or masculine to feminine, as a means of
practising agreements. Alternatively you might be required to transform
verb forms from one tense to another, from active to passive voice or into
‘reported speech’. Once you feel conﬁdent with these activities, you might
try to reconstruct short texts from memory, whether orally or in writing.
For more complex oral or written texts, you might ﬁnd it helpful to note
key points or expressions before attempting to reconstruct them yourself.
Alternatively you could use given models as the basis of your own adapted
versions, whether spoken or written.
Strategies for improving accuracy, ﬂuency and pronunciation
Build your speaking skills from your listening. Focus on how the
language sounds and the sort of things people actually say rather than
learning just from the written word. Printed dialogues, for example,
will normally omit hesitations and ﬁllers, but these are a fundamental
aspect of how people talk in the target language.
Sometimes it is helpful to concentrate on how the language sounds
before seeing the printed word, as it can be tempting to pronounce
words as you would in your own language rather than how they are
pronounced in the target language. This is particularly the case when
words look very similar, e.g. télévision (Fr), televisión (Sp).
continued

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If you are studying a course that sometimes presents new material
in the form of a spoken dialogue, you could try the following
approach:
• Listen to the dialogue before reading it; this will help you focus
on what the language sounds like.
• Listen to a short section and record yourself repeating it; this will
help you to pronounce the sounds correctly.
• Read the dialogue silently and ensure you understand it; this will
ensure you know what you are saying.
• Record yourself again, using the written dialogue as a prompt if
necessary; this is the stage where you are combining knowing what
you are saying with sounding ﬂuent.
• Compare the model dialogue with your two recordings, and work
on improving your version if necessary.
INTERACTING WITH OTHERS
Sounding and looking like a competent speaker of the target
language
Do your best to sound, feel and look like a ﬂuent target language speaker.
Notice and adopt the typical gestures you have observed people using when
speaking. Listen out for the routine expressions and utterances that target
language speakers use. Try to mimic these, copying their pronunciation
and intonation, and incorporating them into what you say.
Giving yourself thinking time: using ﬁllers
When you are trying to work out how best to express yourself, you can use
‘ﬁllers’ to good effect to stall and at the same time avoid long silences that
break up the flow (see also Chapter 5, ‘What do reading and listening
involve?’).
• A simple technique for English speakers is to replace the English um
with the target language equivalent, e.g. Do I think it’s his best ﬁlm . . . ?
Well, I don’t know . . . I . . . uh . . . I . . . didn’t . . . I . . . uh . . . I haven’t
seen her . . . uh . . . his third ﬁlm yet. So, um . . . I’m not sure, really.
• Similarly, using various equivalents of the English ﬁller Well . . . at the
beginning of a response can be very effective in lending your speaking
a ﬂuent air: Eh bien . . ., Alors . . . (Fr); Also . . . , Na ja . . . (Ger); Bueno
. . ., Entonces . . . (Sp), Allora . . ., Così . . . (It).

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• Other typical English fillers include short set phrases such as: That’s
an interesting question; Absolutely; I’m not sure, but . . .; To be honest
. . .; I don’t know; Yes, I think so; Really? Surely not! The target language may not have direct translations of these phrases, but there will
be others that fulﬁl the same purpose, e.g. in Arabic Really? is
(Sahiya?) and in French Vraiment?
• Make sure you know some set phrases relevant to the sort of conversation you might have, so that you can pull out ready-made chunks of
language, rather than trying to construct something from individual
words. Some phrases crop up in all sorts of conversations: I wonder if
you could help me?
• Draw directly on the language directed at you in conversation. For
example, if someone asked you: Did you leave it in the bar? you could
respond with Hm . . . Did I leave it in the bar . . .? or even . . . in the bar?
. . . um . . .
• Spend a little time early on in your language studies learning phrases
to use when you are not sure you have understood: Can you say that
again, please? / I didn’t quite understand / Where exactly . . .?
You should also listen out in general for key items of vocabulary, pronunciation and grammatical forms, so that you have them in your ‘language
store’ for when you need them.
Improving your accuracy and range
During a conversation, it is likely that if you make a mistake, the person
you are speaking to will reformulate what you said in the correct form, not
necessarily deliberately to correct you, but as a way of clarifying what you
said. If you asked an English speaker, for example, Excuse me, what time
finishes the spectacle? the question might be reformulated into What time
does the show ﬁnish? as part of the reply. Although you may at ﬁrst ﬁnd it
difﬁcult to concentrate on the form as well as the content of what people
say to you, a conversation is a very good opportunity for you to try out
language, hear the correct form and reuse it, or at least store it away for
future use. Often, a question asked of you can be answered using a similar
structure. The following conversation illustrates how this might work with
a learner of English (L) talking to a ﬂuent speaker (F):
L:
F:
L:
That’s where I falled off my bike . . .
You fell off your bike? What happened?
I don’t know what happened. I turned too fast and suddenly I fell off.

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GETTING THE MESSAGE ACROSS
Using language in context
Many activities you do as part of your course are intended to prepare you
for communication by focusing on speciﬁc aspects of the foreign language:
the appropriate use of words or phrases, a particular grammar point or your
pronunciation. But to communicate effectively in the language, you also
need practice in coping with real-life tasks, that is, situations which involve
using language in context. In real-life interactions the most important
thing is getting your message across, rather than concentrating on correct
verb endings or ‘perfect’ pronunciation.
When language is used in context – whether in your mother tongue or
the language you are learning – several different things happen at the same
time:
• You are aware of the situation in which you ﬁnd yourself: who you are
speaking to, where and when.
• You have an idea of the content of what you want to communicate.
• You put together the words or phrases you want to say.
• You articulate these words.
In your own language the elements lower down the list, such as ﬁnding
the right words and saying them, are automatic, allowing greater attention
to be paid to the content of the message. In the foreign language, focusing
on situation and content, rather than struggling to formulate a ‘correct’
sentence, can help you communicate effectively.
Using the language you know
Learning a foreign language has similarities with learning your mother
tongue as a child. Sometimes children may want to say something but
may not yet have the right words or the complexity of language to do
so accurately. They therefore try to make themselves understood with
whatever linguistic means they have at their disposal. The reaction they
receive is their best feedback and will inﬂuence their use of language in
the future.
Chapter 1 points out the frustrations and difficulties you may experience as an adult language learner, because of the mismatch between the
ideas you want to express and the language you have available to do so.
Like children, you will at times have to ‘make do’ with what you can say.
Although it is important to experiment with language and take some risks
with what you say and write (see Chapter 3, ‘Taking risks and learning from
mistakes’), trying to go too far beyond your language level will not generally
pay off. Remember too that complex concepts can often be expressed in
simple words.

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How not to get your message across
You are an English speaker on holiday abroad and have to drive to the
nearest station to meet a friend. You would like to ask: What’s the best way
of getting to the station? and want to sound as polite and sophisticated as in
your own language (a somewhat problematic notion as politeness is
expressed differently in different cultures). Even if you have time to reach
for your dictionary and attempt an exact translation, this is not likely to
lead to the best possible result. In this particular case the ﬁrst word already
proves to be a major hurdle: What has several meanings and can usually be
translated in different ways. Moreover, the whole construction is quite
complex.
A much better approach would be to start not with the precise wording
but with a general idea of what you want to say and then search your store
of the foreign language for ways of expressing this idea. Depending on your
level of language you might come up with just the name of the place you
are looking for or a set phrase you know, e.g. La gare, s’il vous plaît? Où est
la gare, s’il vous plaît? or Pour aller à la gare, s’il vous plaît? (Fr); Der Bahnhof,
bitte? Wo ist der Bahnhof, bitte? or Wie komme ich zum Bahnhof, bitte? (Ger);
¿La estación, por favor? Perdone, ¿dónde está la estación? or Perdone, ¿por
dónde se va a la estación? (Sp). All of these are suitable ways of getting your
message across. Using the language you know will make you much more
comprehensible to a speaker of your target language than trying to translate
unfamiliar items which can often lead you into a ‘translation trap’ (translating words literally).
Task 6.3 Using the target language
Think of two situations where you are likely to use the target language. Start
making a list of useful expressions and sentences that you would use in these
situations.
Situation
1
For beginners:
booking a hotel room
2
For more advanced learners:
complaining about the state of
your hotel room
What you might want to say

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Understanding the reply
Getting your message across effectively is of course very satisfying, but it
can lead to yet another difﬁculty: the other speaker may treat you as an
advanced speaker of their language and may give a reply that is incomprehensible to you, because it is too fast or too complex or contains difﬁcult
vocabulary, or because you are simply not used to the accent or intonation.
A successful exchange is one where you get your message across and get
the information you need in return (see also Chapter 3, ‘Knowing how to
prepare yourself’, on compensation strategies and Chapter 5, ‘Before and
after you read or listen’, on anticipating what you may hear.)
Steps to successful communication
• Think about the situation (or, in a language learning context: make
sure you have understood the task).
• Decide what needs saying.
• Draw on the language you have learned to formulate what you are
going to say.
• Practise saying it in your head.
• Think about possible replies you might get.
• Prepare a response (e.g. thank you).
• Prepare an appropriate set phrase in case you have not understood.
• In cases of partial understanding: repeat back what you did understand.
• Try to incorporate useful expressions you hear during the interaction into your own replies.
PREPARING WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY OR WRITE
Making time to prepare
In your native language, it is helpful to know what you hope to say or write
before you begin, particularly in an unfamiliar situation or one in which it
matters how you put across your points, for example making a complaint,
requesting a service or dealing with a sensitive topic. Whatever level you
are working at in the target language, you will ﬁnd that you communicate
much more effectively if you take time to organize and structure your ideas
in advance.

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Conventions in speaking and writing
When you start learning a foreign language, it is not long before you notice
differences in the way things are done in comparison with your own
language. These can range from the way people answer the telephone or
ask for goods in a shop to the way they structure a formal talk or letter.
Task 6.4 Reasons for writing and speaking
Consider the following common reasons for writing and speaking. Each of these
situations has its own conventions – a speciﬁc structure, typical phrases and
an expected tone. In each case, think about what these would be in your own
language:
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
a letter complaining about poor accommodation in a hotel;
a telephone call to a friend who has just received bad news;
a telephone order for goods from a catalogue;
a job review meeting where your salary may or may not be increased;
an email to a colleague with instructions on how to get to your house;
a conversation with your neighbour’s children about their new toys;
a birthday card to a relative;
a conversation at the doctor’s about an illness;
a conversation with a friend explaining a recipe.
Comment
Becoming aware of the conventions in your own language will help you to
recognize those of the target language when you encounter them. If you
become sensitive to this in the early stages of your language learning, you will
ﬁnd it easier to become attuned to more subtle and complex conventions as
you progress.
Developing good reading and listening skills is, of course, central to
improving the productive skills of speaking and writing, as discussed in
Chapter 5. Even in a conversation, where you are faced with dealing with
the unexpected, focusing not only on what people say to you but also on
how they say it will help you to increase your range and accuracy and also
to adopt an appropriate register and tone when you speak.
What applies to the real-life situations listed in Task 6.4 is also true for
the tasks you may be asked to do in the course of your language studies.
Many of the spoken presentations or pieces of writing that you are asked
to produce as a language learner simulate real situations and their
conventions, styles and formats. In preparing, planning and then drafting,
where appropriate, it is important to recognize and be aware of the format

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that is expected – whether it is a short thank-you speech, an interview, a
report, a description, an essay, an article, a letter or a poem.
Thinking about the content
Planning a spoken or written contribution very often starts with thinking
around the topic. In some cases all you need to do is note down a few
important points, but if, for example, you have been asked to write an essay,
more extensive research may be needed.
Whether it be brainstorming the topic, discussing it with someone else,
reading around it, or searching via the Web, the initial informationgathering stage is useful in drawing together what you know already with
other ideas that emerge. You will ﬁnd links and themes developing, and
whether your brainstorming evolves into a list, a table or a mind map,
it will be a useful way to generate ideas. For example, if you were asked to
compare people’s shopping habits in the western world now with twenty
years ago, you might come up with a mind map or a table resembling the
following:
Twenty years ago
Now
Corner shop
Paying cash
Knowing the shopkeeper personally
Quality products
Being able to ask for a credit
...
Online shopping
Credit cards
Big department stores
More choice
Special products, e.g. diet, organic
Cheaper products
...
Thinking about the structure
Even short spoken or written contributions benefit from a coherent
structure that has been thought through beforehand. For more complex
tasks you may want to write a detailed plan. In the case of writing an essay
or preparing an oral presentation, the title and task will usually give clues
as to the format needed, and this will allow you to start plotting the lines
of reasoning you will use. For example, it might imply an analytical
approach, where you deﬁne the issues, summarize the main themes, present
an analysis and critique, and end up with a viewpoint on the topic that
may be your own or a synthesis of other viewpoints. Alternatively, it may
be a narrative-type task that invites you to describe events chronologically
and descriptively but without critical analysis.
It is a personal decision whether to produce a very detailed plan
or whether to approach the task in a more spontaneous, organic way

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that involves perhaps more drafting and redrafting. There are different schools of thought on this, and trends have changed with the use of
word-processing and other ICT tools. It is unlikely that you will produce
a well-structured essay or presentation, however, without some form of
plan. This may be keywords on a scrap of paper to help you remember the
items that you will talk about spontaneously to a group, or it may be more
detailed notes on a developed line of reasoning for a speech you are giving
or recording. When writing, you may ﬁnd that you keep revising your initial
plan. On the computer you can do this with relative ease by cutting, pasting
and rearranging parts of the text.
This does not mean that your initial plan was not useful. A plan can be
a good antidote to the proverbial writer’s block – it can help to break down
what seems to be a daunting undertaking into smaller more manageable
tasks. A plan is also a lot easier to redraft than an extended piece of written
or oral work.
Beginning with the basics: a beginning, middle and end
When presenting a topic orally or in writing, the beginning is used to
present the topic, the middle to develop and expand on it and the end to
come to some sort of conclusion. This is standard in planned presentations and essays, but you may also find a similar pattern when listening
to conversations, watching news reports or reading letters or newspaper
articles. If you are writing or speaking in a situation where there is no
opportunity for interaction, such as writing a letter or giving a brief
presentation to express your views about something, it is important not
only that you introduce and conclude what you have to say but also that
your middle section is clear and coherent.
At more advanced levels when you are dealing with complex material,
particularly if you are trying to put forward a case for something where
there may be opposing views, it helps to think of your ‘text’ as a discussion.
One way of doing this is to imagine you are talking with a group of people.
You put forward an opinion, and someone challenges you with a counterargument. Someone else accuses you of being biased for various reasons.
Another person introduces a whole new angle on the topic. Giving a talk
or writing an essay is about gathering together all these characteristics of
a discussion and presenting them coherently. Because your audience cannot
raise objections and ask questions directly, you have to anticipate and
address these in what you say or write.
Awareness of audience and purpose
You would not normally talk in the same way to a close friend as you would
to a complete stranger. Similarly, your purpose in writing or speaking, such
as requesting information or complaining about how you have been treated,

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will have a bearing on what you say and how you say it. Consider the
following questions:
What is your purpose?
• Are you trying to persuade, inform, complain, ask for advice . . .?
• What does your role in a conversation involve? What is the context?
• What are the linguistic resources you need to achieve your purpose?
Do your textbook, grammar book or dictionary provide appropriate
expressions?
Who is your audience?
• What tone, register and forms of address are appropriate for your
audience?
• How will you make sure your audience follows you and is interested in
what you have to say?
• Do you know how to interpret the body language of your audience and
how to adjust yours accordingly? In some cultures, for example, interest
is shown by looking at the speaker, whilst in others it is considered
disrespectful to do so. You will need to become aware of these conventions by paying close attention to what you read, hear and see in the
target language as well as by noting any information provided in your
course or other materials.
• Sometimes you might have to anticipate how your audience is going to
react. You may need to explain a complex term, use rhetorical questions
to interest the audience in what you are about to say or pre-empt any
counter-arguments.
A good way to prepare is to imagine yourself as one of the people you
are addressing, which means that you will need to pay attention to any
cultural conventions that differ from your own. Ask yourself some of the
following questions:
•
•
•
•
How would I like to be addressed?
What sort of tone would I respond most positively to?
How would I like the topic to be presented to gain my interest?
What sort of arguments would convince me?

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Strategies to develop planning and sequencing skills
1 Draw up a plan which reﬂects the structure of one of the following:
•
•
•
•
a recent discussion you have heard;
a documentary you have watched;
a letter you have read;
a newspaper article.
2 Make a photocopy of a text in either the foreign language or
in your own. Without reading it, cut it up into paragraphs. Lay
all the paragraphs out, read them and put them into a logical
sequence. Compare your finished product with the original.
Which sequence works best and why?
3 Read or listen to some material in the target language and create
a detailed plan which reflects its overall structure. Rewrite or
record your own version following the same plan, and compare
your version with the original, noting in both versions phrases
and vocabulary that you particularly like.
Strategies to help with composition
To avoid the problem of thinking in your mother tongue and translating your ideas literally:
1 Work from the plan you have prepared in the target language.
This will contain the key linguistic elements and ideas and
possibly some set phrases you can include.
2 If you are using a word processor, open various documents at the
same time: a target language plan, lists or tables of useful phrases
and a blank document for composing your text. You can then copy
and paste as necessary.
3 Keep a list to hand of key differences between your own language
and the target language that you have particular difﬁculty with.
If you are a native English speaker, for example, these might
include how to express the English continuous tenses I was going,
I am going, I will be going, etc. and formation of the future and
conditional tenses: do you add endings to the verb or is there a
separate word for will/shall and would?
continued

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4 Try to ensure that what you write is grammatically possible.
Rephrase complex sentences into chunks that you know to
be correct, e.g. My ideal holiday would be spent lying on the beach on
a sun-drenched island, to I would spend / my ideal holiday / on a sundrenched island.
Strategies to encourage self-correction
1 Draw up a list of key grammatical areas to check, e.g. verb agreements, adjective agreements, tenses, genders, etc., remembering
to include particular difﬁculties you have. Check for one category
of error at a time, leaving as much time as possible between
composing and your grammar check.
2 Check that the language you have used is accurate, e.g.:
•
•
•
•
Do my nouns and verbs agree?
Are my adjective endings correct?
Are the tenses I used consistent?
Is the word order correct?
3 If you have access to a foreign-language grammar and spellchecker
on a computer, use these to check your work, remembering that
neither is perfect.
4 In revising work, focus on one area you know you have difﬁculty
with, for example, a certain tense, adjective agreements or word
order.
5 When you have used the methods above for spotting errors or
have received some feedback from a tutor, try to categorize your
errors to help you learn from them (see Chapter 9).
SPEAKING AND WRITING FROM NOTES
Making notes to organize your thoughts
As Chapter 3, ‘Making and keeping notes’, explains, notes are useful for
supporting your language study in many different ways. You may be making
very quick notes in preparation for a spoken exchange or writing more
detailed and sequenced notes for a lengthy essay or report to be submitted
at a later stage. In the latter case, you will probably go through several
stages in your note-taking. As you gather more information on the topic

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from either written or spoken sources you will add points which may be
more relevant and delete others which have become redundant. You will
also change the structure of your notes as you think through the task and
refine your approach. At a later stage you may also choose to jot down
speciﬁc phrases, idioms and vocabulary which you wish to use in the ﬁnal
piece of work. The more adept you become at all of this, the better your
ﬁnal piece of work will be.
Task 6.5 Using notes
List a few situations in your everyday life where you use notes to help you focus
your thoughts in preparation for a task. Have you got any examples of notes
you made recently?
Comment
You will probably ﬁnd that your notes are structured in different ways depending
on the nature of the task. For instance, you might have listed the points in order
of importance or in a logical sequence. You may have grouped items under
headings or put questions you want to ask during a telephone conversation in
chronological order.
The type of work you need to produce undoubtedly inﬂuences the way
you organize your notes. In early stages of language learning, you will be
dealing with basic situations and tasks and your notes may simply reﬂect
the content points you wish to include, which you can tick off as you cover
them. If you are a more advanced learner planning to produce an oral
report or discursive essay, your notes will have to reﬂect the structure you
wish to follow. If you are involved in comparing views then be sure to
indicate both sides of the argument clearly. You have already seen that
charts or tables are often good for this. Here is another example of notes,
this time preparing a first draft of arguments on the advantages and
disadvantages of shopping in supermarkets.
Pros
Cons
large selection of products
cheaper than local shops
all in one place
saves time
parking spaces
staff not always friendly
excessive packaging
accessible only by car
further away than local shops
no fresh local produce

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The next stage might be to take each of the advantages and disadvantages
in turn and to develop a mind map round each of them. Figure 6.3 shows
an example:
anonymous
no friendly chats
Staff not
always
friendly
feeling lonely
feeling
annoyed
no advice on
what to buy
Figure 6.3 Brainstorming ideas for an essay.
You may prefer to write your notes in the target language from the start,
so that you start thinking in the language and avoid the trap of translating
words literally. Of course, you may occasionally want to jot down some
ideas in your own language, but generally target language notes give you a
head start by providing the linguistic basis for your speaking or writing.
Using your notes
When speaking or writing from notes, you will need to consider the
conventions described above and make your contribution interesting
to your audience. In written contributions your audience usually expects
fully formed sentences which are grammatically correct and coherent.
Formulating spoken language from notes is quite a different process, as the
language contains some features that are unacceptable in written language,
such as repetitions, incomplete sentences and unconventional word order.
At the same time, you have other means at your disposal to get your
message across and capture your audience: stress, intonation and gesture
are as important as the words you choose.
Incorporating language from other sources into your speech or
writing
When making a longer contribution, such as giving an oral presentation
or writing an essay, you will probably base some of your content on source

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materials, for example a radio programme or an article. You can incorporate
some of the language used in these materials into your own speech or
writing, such as vocabulary relevant to the topic, set phrases or structures
that you have come across in your reading and listening.
Reusing language from source materials does not mean copying whole
sentences word for word. Indeed, in institutional settings you will be
penalized for doing this, unless you use quotation marks. Noting down key
points ﬁrst and then formulating your contribution from your notes will
help you find your own way of expressing yourself rather than directly
copying from other texts.
Delivering oral presentations
Oral presentations are required in many language courses, as well as in
other environments. They require planning and structuring, and the
language is expected to be more ‘polished’ than in informal spoken interaction.
Tips for oral presentations
• Think of your audience ﬁrst: what are they likely to ﬁnd interesting? How does it need to be structured? What visual aids should
you use?
• When preparing your notes, index cards are useful for each section
or point you wish to cover. Large sheets of paper are not as easy
to use as you can lose your way.
• Try not to make your notes too detailed or too complex or your
writing too small, as visual clarity is very important when you
are speaking with notes. Full sentences are not helpful, as you
won’t have time to make sense of them if you are put on the
spot. In addition, if you read from them without looking up, your
presentation will become monotonous and your intonation
inappropriate. If it is an assessed language task you may also lose
marks.
• As note-taking tools, mind maps have an added benefit (see
Chapter 3, ‘Different ways of making notes’): they can help you
memorize the points you wish to make. This will make you more
assured when giving your presentation and you will be less reliant
on your notes.
• Flow charts can be more useful when adopting a chronological or
linear sequence (see Chapter 3, ‘Different ways of making notes’).
continued

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• Highlighting key words or those that you ﬁnd difﬁcult to say can
also be helpful.
• If you are interpreting points from written texts, you may have to
modify the way you express these points to suit the spoken
medium.
• You may also wish to make a note of when to pause and breathe
to allow your audience to absorb your points.
• Speak slowly and clearly and stress important facts and arguments,
otherwise vital information may be lost on your audience.
• Look at your notes only if you need to and at your audience as
much as possible.
MAKING YOUR SPEECH AND WRITING FLOW
Keeping to the point and presenting a coherent argument
In any number of situations in the world outside your language studies,
you may need to be able to put forward a clear case, for example you might
want to complain about a faulty shower in your hotel, discuss lack of
progress on alterations to your property or write a formal letter to the
appropriate body to protest about something. Whether you are dealing with
a real situation or doing a language task, it is important to check that what
you write or say is coherent, consistent and relevant. Each section needs
to follow logically from the previous one and your conclusions must be in
agreement with what you have already said and be derived from the points
you have made previously. To check this, there are some key questions to
consider when planning and reviewing:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Do I know what my view or argument is?
How clear is this to my audience?
Have I shown my audience how one point follows on from the next?
Have I used evidence to support what I have said?
Does everything I have included refer to the overall question or point?
Does my conclusion follow logically from what I have said before?
Am I sure that my presentation or writing does not contradict itself?
Using ‘discourse markers’ to help your audience ﬁnd their
way through
As mentioned earlier (‘Remembering and recalling words and phrases’),
discourse markers are an excellent device for structuring your work and

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improving ﬂuency. If you use them appropriately to guide your audience,
they will not have to work out for themselves how one point relates to
another and your arguments will come over clearly and coherently.
Task 6.6 Using discourse markers
1
Look at the examples given below in English and note down phrases you
already know in your target language which could be used in each context:
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
2
introducing a list of points: ﬁrstly, secondly, ﬁnally
stressing a point with two examples: Not only . . . but also . . .
expressing contrast: On the one hand . . . on the other . . .
contrasting views: Some people maintain that . . . whilst others would
argue . . .
stating the purpose of what you are about to say: An argument against
this suggestion . . .
showing logical consequence of a previous point: thus, therefore,
consequently
showing contradiction to a previous point: but, however, yet
arguing against a point: Although . . .
phrases to signal opinions: It seems to me that . . ., As far as I can see
...
signalling the use of a piece of evidence: According to research . . .
introducing a proposal: Why not . . .? What about . . .? What if . . .?
exhorting the audience to see your point of view: Surely . . .?
situating something in time: Yesterday . . . After . . .
concluding: All in all . . ., In conclusion . . .
Select two or three target-language examples of one of the types of material
listed below and identify the discourse markers used:
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
holiday postcards
letters of complaint
letters to a newspaper
newspaper articles
formal speeches
᭿ a radio interview
᭿ a TV cooking or gardening programme

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STYLE AND REGISTER
Style
Writers or speakers can shape what they are communicating and inﬂuence
their audience by using different stylistic features. You can change the focus
of what you are communicating by giving prominence to speciﬁc elements
of a sentence – by changing the word order, by highlighting specific
elements using adverbs or other devices, or by using a passive instead of an
active construction. For instance, in the sentence The president has been
assassinated by freedom ﬁghters, the use of the passive stresses that it is the
president who has been killed; in the sentence Freedom fighters have
assassinated the president, which uses an active construction, the ‘doers’ of
the action, i.e. the freedom ﬁghters, are given prominence.
At higher levels you can use rhetorical devices to persuade people, or
to engage them in what you are communicating. Below you will ﬁnd some
of the most common rhetorical devices, with examples in English. You may
ﬁnd similar devices in authentic texts of the language you are learning or
you may become aware of others not used in English:
• Choice of vocabulary: this will depend on the tone, the purpose, or the
context, for example.
• Sound patterns, such as the use of alliteration (six sizzling sausages
swimming in a pan) or onomatopoeia (Bang!) for speciﬁc effects.
• The use of metaphors, e.g. You are my sunshine; similes: as pretty as a
picture; personiﬁcation: She’s a great little car, etc.
• Rhetorical questions: these are commonly used both in speaking
and writing to introduce an argument or a topic and are often used as
the final sentence of one paragraph, with the subsequent paragraph
addressing the issue raised in the question. Rhetorical questions do
not always have to be answered. In some cases they are used to end a
presentation or an article in order to leave the audience with a question
in their mind, for example: But at what cost? When will we know for sure?
Is this really what we want for our children’s children? What changes will you
be making?
• Structural devices that organize the discourse. These include:
– using repetition for stress: persuasive speaking often uses repetition
to stress a point. This can often be heard in speeches made by
politicians and may even be accompanied by banging ﬁsts on the
table for extra emphasis, for example: We will cut crime, we will cut
violence and we will cut fear.
– using contrasting mirror sentences: a mirror sentence is one where
the structure of both halves is identical. If the two halves have
identical structure but contrasting content, then this can create a
powerful effect, for example: Mankind must put an end to war or war
will put an end to mankind (John F. Kennedy).

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Register
Register, as Chapter 4, ‘The social and cultural role of language’, brieﬂy
explains, describes the variations in language according to use:
• The mode: either written or spoken. The conventions used in these
two modes vary. Think, for instance, of how you end a telephone
conversation as opposed to a letter.
• The manner: the relationship between the participants, which can be
formal or informal. Compare for instance an email to a friend, which
will be informal and personal, and an essay written for an exam, which
will be more formal and not seek to develop a personal relationship
with the reader.
• The ﬁeld: the area, the subject matter. In a report about the ecological
threats of mass tourism, for instance, you could use vocabulary speciﬁc
to environmental science, which would not be appropriate or relevant
in other contexts.
It is important, to remember that features of style and register differ
across languages and cultures, and that what is appropriate or effective in
one is not necessarily valid in another. The passive is used in English much
more than in Spanish, for example, so a direct translation of that form is
not always appropriate.
Improving style and register
1 Select a text. Highlight in different colours all the phrases the
author uses to show:
a
b
c
d
e
f
an opinion;
a generally held view;
the use of evidence;
an appeal to the reader;
a link between ideas;
time and location.
2 Practise using some of these phrases in writing and speaking with
topics of your choosing: e.g. Not only was the campsite dirty
but also noisy and overcrowded. Surely you do not expect anyone
who has stayed here to recommend this site? In my view, the reality
did not match the description in the brochure at all. On page 6,
for example, it is described as ‘peaceful and relaxing’. In the
circumstances, I request a 50 per cent refund.
continued

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3 Create handwritten grids or set up tables in a word-processing
document, as follows:
• synonyms for common words, e.g. be, have, like, want;
• phrases to express agreement, disagreement, evidence, etc.;
• phrases for certain contexts, e.g. welcomes, thanks, business
letters.
4 Print or write out the useful phrases in 3 above on pieces of card,
with your mother-tongue equivalent on the back if that would
help, and make up various ways to practise them.
EVALUATING YOUR WRITING AND SPEAKING
This involves being aware of the accuracy and ﬂuency of your language,
the clarity of your ideas, and the factors inﬂuencing style and register, such
as your audience and the purpose of your communication. You should also
incorporate feedback from your teacher or from others into your subsequent
speaking or writing.
Checklist: monitoring and evaluating your work
• What was the purpose of my writing/speaking, and have I fulﬁlled
it?
• Have I taken my audience into account?
• Have I answered the question/carried out the task fully?
• Have I got my message across?
• Have I kept to the point?
• Are my arguments coherent?
• Are my ideas well organized with appropriate links?
• Is the language I have used ﬂuent?
• Have I used natural-sounding collocations and set phrases?
• Is the language I have used accurate?
– Do my nouns and verbs agree?
– Are my adjective endings correct?

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– Are the tenses I have used consistent?
– Is the word order correct?
(You may wish to create your own checklist, depending on the
language you are learning and your level.)
Summary of key points
• Language does not occur in isolation. The context in which it is
used forms an integral part of its meaning.
• You will always understand more language than you can actively
use.
• Being exposed to language on the one hand and practising it on
the other will together help develop your ability to understand
and produce it.
• Collocations and set phrases are key features of natural language
use.
• You can practise language either by concentrating on individual
elements (for example a grammar point) or by simulating more
realistic situations. Both are important to make your language
more accurate and ﬂuent and to prepare you for language use in
real contexts.
• Different situations and audiences call for different uses of
language in terms of style and degree of formality.
• When preparing a presentation or extended piece of writing, the
time spent on planning and note-taking will be invaluable.
• You can use a variety of strategies to improve your spoken or
written language in order to capture and maintain the attention
of your audience.

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The world as a classroom
James A. Coleman and Uwe Baumann
Language learning can be greatly enhanced by what you do outside the
classroom or beyond your study materials, whether or not you are following
a formal course. What is learned is not necessarily the same as what
is taught. It can be much more or much less, depending on whether you
seize the opportunities available to you and use the language you are
learning.
In many ways, learning a language is like learning to play tennis, or to
drive a rally car. Formal tuition in whatever form can take you so far, but
only real-life practice can speed up your reactions and make your responses
ﬂuent and automatic. This chapter shows you what real-life resources are
available to you, and how you can use them to build your conﬁdence and
your capacity to deal with the kind of written and spoken language a
competent speaker of your target language would use.
WHY USE REAL-LIFE MATERIALS?
You have probably found out for yourself that spending hours over grammar
books or vocabulary lists contributes only so much to developing your
competence in the language you are learning. Memorizing the rules
governing word endings, tenses or adjective agreement provides you with
knowledge of how certain features are used, but it may not always help
you when you want to respond spontaneously. Of course, knowing how
language rules operate is vital for anyone learning a foreign language. You
can use this knowledge to analyse the meaning of what you hear or read,
and to check that what you write or say is as correct as you can make it.
However, remember the advice in Chapter 6 about the need for a balance
between fluency and accuracy, and the importance of not emphasizing
accuracy at the expense of ﬂuency. There is more to learning a language.
After all, how much do most of us know about the formal grammar of
our own language? For example, how many people who speak English as

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their mother tongue could explain to a learner of English the difference
between these sentences, when one or the other might be more appropriate, and why?
Often I’ve been to the cinema.
I’ve often been to the cinema.
I’ve been often to the cinema.
I’ve been to the cinema often.
The fact is that using a language well is a matter of feel as much as
knowledge.
There are at least two approaches to foreign language learning.
• The ﬁrst recognizes that because adults have fully formed brains, they
cannot learn a foreign language in the same way as they learned their
mother tongue as children. This approach initially requires conscious
learning of grammar and vocabulary (e.g. verb forms, word order, agreements and so on) but suggests that, through practice, the things you
learn consciously can gradually become more automatic, more intuitive
(see Chapter 1, ‘What does learning a language involve?’).
• The other approach is similar to that of a baby unconsciously absorbing
the language. As you hear and read the foreign language, seeking
meaning above all, your brain discerns and stores patterns which you
recognize more easily a second time. Over time, these patterns can not
only be effortlessly deciphered when others say or write them, but they
become part of your own growing repertoire when you speak or write.
In both approaches, learning happens through use. The more you use the
language, both receptively (reading and listening) and productively
(speaking and writing), the more effortlessly you will be able to handle it.
Real-life language resources increase your opportunities to use the language. There are lots of them readily available once you start looking. They
can not only improve your language skills but also increase the enjoyment
and motivation you derive from language learning.
A FEW PRINCIPLES
The ﬁrst principle is to take advantage of opportunities. It is surprising how
much foreign language material is available. You are likely to be able to
ﬁnd books, newspapers, magazines and product descriptions or instructions
in the language you are learning without having to travel to a country
where it is spoken. You may also be able to access cable television channels,
websites or see foreign ﬁlms at a local cinema. There may be speakers of

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your target language living nearby. It is up to you to make the most of all
the opportunities available.
People who have learned a language well often get annoyed to be told,
‘you’re lucky to be able to speak such good Italian/Japanese/Norwegian’.
Luck has little part in learning a foreign language. Indeed, research has
shown that there is probably no such thing as luck in our everyday lives.
What is called ‘luck’ is a combination of opportunities and the readiness
to take advantage of those opportunities.
Principle 1: identify and seize the target language opportunities
available to you.
Task 7.1 Identifying target language opportunities
Make a short list of target language opportunities available to you under these
headings:
What have I got at home/access to from home?
What is available locally/within a reasonable distance?
Comment
Your list is a good start. Keep a look out for other opportunities which may arise.
Some learners use these opportunities as a background to their language
learning, for example, leaving an Italian radio station playing while they
do the ironing, or reading Paris Match once a month. This can be effective,
allowing them to gradually absorb language as described earlier, but it can
take a long time.
You can speed things up by taking an active approach to the language in
the world about you. Set yourself an active task and you become more
involved, your attention is more focused, your brain busier. Your imagination is the only limit to the tasks you can devise. You could summarize
a ﬁlm plot for a friend, explain the latest political scandal in a newspaper
to a colleague at work or list the adjectives used in TV adverts. Chapter 5
suggests ways of creating your own activities using real-life reading and
listening materials, while Chapter 6 describes some strategies for improving
your ﬂuency and coping in real-life interaction with other speakers of the
language. There are more suggestions later in this chapter, and you will no
doubt add others of your own.

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Principle 2: take an active not a passive approach.
Task 7.2 Active tasks
Think of three more active tasks you could carry out using target language TV
or radio programmes, newspapers or magazines.
Comment
If you need some more ideas, look at the following sections on using TV, radio,
newspapers and magazines.
This may sound like hard work. It is, or at least it can be. That is why it
pays off. But this is all the more reason to make it as attractive as possible.
If you do not keep up your own motivation, you will soon be tempted to
do something easier and spend less time on your language learning. Have
you ever wondered why, when UK high street bookshops sell thousands of
foreign language packs every year, all promising to have learners speaking
Greek, Russian or French in three weeks, many people continue to speak
in English when they go abroad? It comes down to effort and conﬁdence.
Effort is a matter of motivation. Keep up your motivation, and you will ﬁnd
the time necessary to improve. As you notice improvement, so your conﬁdence grows, increasing your motivation at the same time.
Maintaining motivation means finding tasks and materials which are
right for you. If you are keen on gardening or photography, order a specialist
magazine in the language you are learning. If you like romantic ﬁction, buy
a few titles in the target language from a bookshop or an Internet retailer,
or ask your library to get them for you. If you are interested in politics,
check the websites of the main political parties or look at the political
columns in a newspaper. If celebrities fascinate you, find photos and
magazine articles about them or look at the websites for their fans and email
your own contribution.
Level is important too. It can be demotivating to struggle with material
which is too advanced or complex. But that does not restrict you to basic
textbooks with audio material. There are real-life materials which are
accessible to even absolute beginners. Holiday brochures, children’s picture
books or cartoons in the language you are learning can offer you authentic
material which is relatively easy to understand. If you have moved on from
being an absolute beginner you could use videos or DVDs which often
come with optional subtitles or soundtracks. You can watch the ﬁlm in your
own language with subtitles in the foreign language or vice versa, or watch
and have the subtitles in the foreign language at the same time. Many
books are published with parallel mother tongue and foreign language texts,

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or you may be able to obtain your favourite novel in a target language
translation. Even radio and television programmes can be accessible. The
formats for popular quiz shows have been sold across the world, and the
language used is fairly predictable. You will be surprised at how much you
can understand, and this will make you feel good, strengthening your sense
of achievement and hence your ongoing motivation.
Principle 3: keep up your motivation by choosing real-life materials
and tasks which reﬂect your own interests and level of proﬁciency.
The ﬁnal principle follows on from the question of motivation, and is a
matter of personal preference. When you are using real-life materials,
should you focus on the meaning or on the language forms? In other words,
how far should you try to forget that you are learning Japanese, Hindi
or Greek, for example, and simply seek to enjoy a ﬁlm without worrying
about understanding every word? Chapter 6 explains the need to balance
accuracy and ﬂuency, but in general, meaning and ﬂuency come ﬁrst when
you are using real-life language opportunities. After all, your reason for
learning the language in the ﬁrst place is to understand or communicate
meaning.
This does not mean that attention to language is unimportant.
Your textbook or language classes will often involve work with texts or
video, initially focusing on meaning, but then looking in more detail at
the language forms used, for example, to express opinions, or to link one
idea to the next. You can do the same with real-life spoken or written texts,
adding the conscious learning approach to the unconscious learning
approach by looking at how speakers of the target language use a particular
form of the language you are studying to express a particular meaning. For
instance, if a character in a detective story asks a question, such as Why did
you go to Barcelona by car yesterday?, what matters first is to grasp the
relevance of this question to the plot. Then, for example, if you are learning
French and have been studying question forms, you might look at how
the question is asked. Does the character use inverted word order or just
intonation? Pourquoi êtes-vous . . . or Pourquoi vous êtes allé(é) à Barcelone
en voiture? Why might this be? Alternatively if you are learning German
and have been studying the order of adverbs, look at how the question
shows the ‘rule’ in practice, i.e. time before manner before place, Warum
sind Sie gestern mit dem Auto nach Barcelona gefahren?
Principle 4: focus primarily on meaning, but look out for examples
of the forms you have learned and how they are used to convey
meaning.

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The four key principles for using the world as a classroom
1 Identify and seize the target language opportunities available to
you.
2 Take an active not a passive approach.
3 Keep up your motivation by choosing authentic materials and
tasks which reﬂect your own interests and level of proﬁciency.
4 Focus primarily on meaning, but look out for examples of the
forms you have learned and how they are used to convey meaning.
Task 7.3 Applying the key principles
Look at the opportunities you identiﬁed in Task 7.1. Then look at Chapter 4,
‘Defining your priorities’. Choose one of your priorities and answer these
questions:
᭿
Which real-life language opportunity will you use to help you reach your
goal? (Think about your interests and your level of language.)
᭿ In what ways can you make active use of this opportunity? (Look at your
ideas in Task 7.2.)
᭿ When are you going to do this and how often?
Comment
By making these decisions, you are forming an ‘action plan’ to achieve your
goal by using real-life language opportunities. Your own plan depends on your
circumstances and interests, but here is an example:
A beginner learner of Italian decided to get some brochures from tourist
ofﬁces in Italy because she was planning a holiday. She aimed to summarize
the places of interest in each city over a period of two weeks and make
a chart to help her decide where to go. While she was looking at the
brochures she noticed some adjectives used to describe the cities which
she could use in her language class where she was learning how to describe
places. She made a note of them.

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TELEVISION AND VIDEO
Getting started
If you live in an area that has cable TV or if you have satellite TV, foreign
programmes including ﬁlms are available. Many foreign language channels
are available to subscribers at no extra cost, so check what is on offer.
Alternatively, for a little extra money and without any subscription, you
can probably get an additional receiver on your dish to pick up programmes
from other satellites, e.g. Astra and Eutelsat in the UK. Programme guides
are published in most newspapers, satellite TV magazines and online.
Foreign language DVDs and videos can be purchased abroad or online
through Internet retailers. Different standards have been adopted around
the world, both for DVD and for video, so before you purchase anything,
make sure the DVD or video you are buying is compatible with your
equipment. Multi-standard players are available but may be more expensive
than ordinary machines.
Task 7.4 Foreign TV stations
Find out which TV stations you can access in the language you are learning.
Comment
Your cable or satellite provider should be able to advise if you are already a
subscriber, or consult a local retailer/installer.
Video recorders and read/write DVD players offer language learners a
number of advantages. First of all, you can record a TV programme and
watch it as often as you like. Programmes are professionally made to be
interesting and entertaining in their own right. They provide an unending
variety of speakers, young and old, male and female, and, in many cases,
from different regions around the world where the language is spoken.
Subtitles are used increasingly, and seeing the speakers’ lips move can help
you recognize individual sounds and words. You also see speakers moving
and gesturing, and the situation in which the conversation is taking place.
With images supporting the content of the speech, it is much easier to
deduce the meaning than on radio, for instance.
Types of TV broadcast
Newscasts are perhaps the easiest to find and one of the most obvious
programme types to use, although they can present particular challenges
for language learners. The newsreader is, by definition, reading a script

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rather than speaking spontaneously, so the language does not have all the
little hesitations, pauses and repetitions which slow down natural speech
and sometimes make it easier to understand. Newsreaders speak rapidly,
and the use of ﬁlm clips from different locations means there are lots of
voice-overs where you cannot see the speaker, and inevitable background
noises can make understanding difﬁcult. News items can often take local
knowledge for granted, such as which government post an interviewee
holds, or which new piece of proposed legislation has brought workers
out on strike. Unless you live in the country, you may not have such background information, although this can be a good way to acquire it. On the
other hand, international stories which you are already aware of will be
much easier to follow.
One way of making sense of news bulletins is to construct a factual grid
to aid your understanding, as shown in Task 7.5.
Task 7.5 Working with television news
Check your understanding of a television news item using the following grid.
Try it with an item in your own language ﬁrst, then one in your target language.
What?
Why?
When?
How?
Where?
Who?
Comment
Both the content of the news and the way it is presented (the choice of items,
relative importance given to local, regional and national stories, treatment of
politicians, impartiality or bias, etc.) give you an insight into the cultures whose
language you are studying.
Adverts provide some of the best television. They have to, given how
expensive each second is to make and transmit. Usually the visuals and
the words have to convey the same message, which helps comprehension,
although sometimes they move too fast or have music or sound effects
which can be an obstacle. Since adverts are designed to sell products or
services, they may give an insight into the lifestyles of some target language
speakers. You can also compare and contrast the use of publicity, the
approaches adopted by advertisers, or how the same product is sold in your

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own country and in the country where your target language is spoken. Once
again, a comprehension grid as in Task 7.6 can help.
Task 7.6 Using a comprehension grid with adverts
Record some TV adverts. Use the grid below to check that you understand
what they are about.
Product name
Product type
Features or qualities highlighted
Target buyer or user (not necessarily the
same!)
Appeal (to science/greed/laziness/fantasy/
sexuality/snobbery, etc.)
Presentation (humorous, factual, mini-soap,
sexist stereotypes, etc.)
Language (key words, slogans, etc.)
Comment
Adverts can provide useful models for pronunciation, intonation and ﬂuency.
Listen to the slogan and imitate the speaker as closely as possible. With several
attempts, you should get close to the sounds and speed of the original. TV
adverts can also help you get used to which adjectives are used to complement
which nouns. Try scripting your own advert if you enjoy being creative.
Feature films also lend themselves to a file-card or grid approach. For
example, you could record the title, genre, date, period set, summary of
story as well as more interpretative comments on actors, costumes, music,
camera work, what you did or did not like.
Soaps are an excellent source of the language of everyday life. How do
people say hello and goodbye, sorry or thank you? How do they answer the
phone, start or finish a phone call? How do they invite, accept, refuse,
argue, express their love, their friendship or their hatred? Soaps offer you
some insight into the everyday lives of people in the countries whose
language you are learning. Foreign language soaps can become addictive,
which is great for your language learning!

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Task 7.7 Working with feature ﬁlms
Devise your own grid or ﬁle-card system for recording information about the
feature ﬁlms you watch. Test it ﬁrst with a ﬁlm in your own language, then use
it for target language ﬁlms.
Comment
You can use your summary as a prompt when you tell others about the ﬁlm.
WORKING WITH VIDEO CLIPS OF ALL KINDS
There are many fun activities you can do with recorded video clips,
whatever the type of programme. Some of them involve prediction (see
Chapter 5, ‘Active reading and listening’). As well as providing quite a
few laughs, prediction can help you read non-linguistic clues which aid
understanding or focus on language forms by comparing your predicted
expressions with those of the video characters.
Predicting with and without sound
Choose a short piece of recorded video, maybe a news item or a dialogue
scene from a ﬁlm, and watch it a few times with the sound off. Try to work
out what is probably being said, and work up your own target language
script, checking structures and vocabulary as necessary. Then watch the
scene with the sound on. Compare your version with the real soundtrack,
noting any differences in the words and phrases used.
Predicting with a partner
A variation on the previous suggestion involves working with a partner.
Without listening to the soundtrack, both of you choose a short video
extract and prepare an imaginary script based on the pictures alone. Listen
on your own to the soundtrack of your partner’s extract, turning your back
on the television and imagining what is happening on the screen. Then
switch off the video and bring your partner back into the room. Use the
target language to try to put together what you have heard (but not seen)
and what your partner has seen (but not heard) in order to reconstruct the
whole piece, before comparing it with the real broadcast. Reverse the roles
and do the same with the other extract.

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Predicting headlines and what happens next
Another variation of this activity is simply to watch the headlines of a
recorded newscast, and, either alone or with a friend, script what you
expect the item to be about. You can also use this as a starting point for
vocabulary work. If the headline is ‘rail chaos’ or ‘new ideas at the local
school’, what words would you expect to hear? Do you know them all in
the language you are learning? Look up any you may not know before
watching the piece. Or you could watch the ﬁrst exchanges of an interview
and ask each other what happens next. Invent some questions and answers
and compare them with the reality. You can also try this with recordings
of ﬁlms, soaps, sporting events, etc. Simply stop the recording after a short
extract and discuss what happens next. This is a valuable exercise. In reallife conversations, without being conscious of it, listeners are constantly
trying to infer what is coming next. This helps them to understand and to
respond quickly and spontaneously.
Using video for speaking practice
Other speakers of your target language are an excellent model for your
pronunciation and intonation. But be aware that, as noted in Chapter 6,
‘Improving your pronunciation and intonation’, they may speak one of a
number of different varieties of the language. Listen several times to a short
speech or dialogue, then use the pause button to repeat after the character
on screen. Practise with a friend and then, with the sound turned off,
imagine you are providing a new soundtrack to the great love scene or the
confrontation between the baddies!
Other active ways of using video
As you can see, using foreign language video is not necessarily a passive
activity. There are other ways of making sure you are really concentrating
on how people communicate in the language. Try writing a summary of a
news item or documentary. Again you can compare the results with a
friend. This can become more sophisticated if you watch an extract several
times, concentrating on the essentials (gist comprehension) the ﬁrst time
through, and adding detail at each viewing. You could ask yourself the
following questions:
•
•
•
•
What is the theme?
What is the presenter’s argument?
How does s/he support the argument?
What are the examples s/he mentions?
You can also look at the language:

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• How does s/he introduce an example . . .
• . . . or a contrast?
• How does s/he link one point to the next?
More advanced students can learn a lot about style and register (see
Chapter 6) from this kind of linguistic analysis. How formal is the situation?
Why do they use tu, tú or du, for example? Often the conventions for how
to behave, such as giving thanks, accepting an invitation or greeting a
friend or colleague, differ from one country to another, and appreciating
these distinctions moves you closer to the people of the country concerned.
Any broadcast can be a basis for discussion with a partner, both of the
content, and of many other aspects. Stretch your vocabulary by trying to
describe the background music, or the mood of a particular scene. After
watching a ﬁlm together, describe one of the characters (appearance, dress,
habits, personality) and invite your partner to guess who it is. If you are
feeling more ambitious, act out the scene or script a similar one of your
own. Alternatively, you might want to write a short critique of the ﬁlm like
those you ﬁnd in a newspaper or magazine.
Longer, cumulative tasks can really pay off. For example, an interest in
environmental issues could lead you to monitoring daily newscasts for items
on this topic, and scanning the programme schedules for any documentaries or discussions. By taking notes, and compiling a dossier over a few
months, you can become an expert not just on the topic but also on how
people talk about it in your target language. This way, you are gaining
both improved language and insight into how speakers of the language
think about an issue. But, as was stressed earlier, concentrate on what you
enjoy doing, focus primarily on the meaning and enjoy the whole visual
experience.
Task 7.8 Working with video
Find a partner and try out two of the activities suggested in the working with
video section. What worked well? What didn’t work? What will you try differently
next time? If you cannot ﬁnd a partner, choose two activities you can do on
your own.
Comment
Chapter 4 explains the importance of reviewing what you do in order to get the
most out of your learning activity.
The following sections examine ways of using radio/audio and printed
materials respectively. Although they are in separate sections, you can

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create some interesting tasks by comparing one medium with another. For
instance, ﬁnd the same story in a TV newscast or a radio bulletin and a
national newspaper, then compare the information, the treatment and the
language used. Which has more detail? Which uses more formal language?
How does the TV item use images compared with the newspaper?
RADIO AND OTHER AUDIO
Radio
Getting started
Listening to the radio in your target language can help to improve your
listening comprehension once you have got your ear ‘tuned’ to the
language. Some radio stations can be received on short wave at various
times of the day. The Internet not only provides information about radio
station frequencies, but increasingly allows you to listen live. (See Chapter
8, ‘Finding materials and resources on the Web’, for advice on using search
engines to locate resources.) You can also access digital radio stations
through satellite television. Some stations are specifically aimed at
international audiences and broadcast in a variety of languages. Many
of the techniques and approaches to get the most out of watching TV or
videos can be used with radio programmes.
Sample radio station websites:
http://www.dw-world.de (German)
http://oe1.orf.at/service/international (Austrian)
http://www.rﬁ.fr/ (French)
http://www.rtve.es/rne/ree/ (Spanish)
http://www.101.ru (Russian)
http://radio.rai.it (Italian)
http://www.latinworld.com/radio/ (lists radio stations from different
Latin American countries).
http://windowsmedia.msn.com/radiotuner/Findstations.asp/ (lets you
ﬁnd new stations by genre or language).
As with film and television, choosing the right programme to listen
to depends very much on your personal interests and your level of proﬁciency. As a language learner, the radio gives you a lot of choice. Radio

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programmes are relatively easy to access, available at almost any time and
offer you a certain amount of ﬂexibility. You can listen to the radio in front
of your computer, on your home stereo, or, with a portable set or personal
stereo, almost anywhere. You will hear authentic language, a wide variety
of types of language (depending on your choice of programme) and possibly
different regional accents.
On the other hand, the language you hear is totally natural, and there
is little to help you understand it. It is often spoken at high speed and
sometimes quite colloquial. You have no second chance. Either you
understand what is being said immediately, or not at all. This can be quite
daunting for a language learner. In addition, some programmes may require
a high level of knowledge of the country in order to make sense of what
is being discussed, and many topics may not be of immediate interest. One
solution is to record potentially interesting or favourite types of programmes and then listen to them several times.
Types of radio broadcast
News bulletins have the advantage of being short and covering a variety
of news items but they can be quite hard to understand because of the fast
pace. If you are interested in news and listen to it in your own language,
the news from abroad may be easier to follow because some of the stories
will be the same and cover international events. Some of the words and
expressions you hear may be familiar to you because they are international
or the same as in your own language. Bulletins tend to be frequent and
often repetitive so you can hear them again without having to record them.
You could set yourself a task to see how many items in the news bulletin
you understand. Try again an hour/a day/a week later to see how much you
have improved.
News magazine and feature programmes are generally longer and offer a
more in-depth treatment of issues, with a slower pace, more interviews and
more repetition. If you are a less advanced learner, such programmes may
be easier to follow.
Radio plays or drama offer an opportunity to listen to different types of
language, sometimes with regional accents. Radio drama can range from
adaptations of classic plays to crime stories and humorous and satirical
sketches, and offers you an insight into the cultures of the communities
who speak your target language.
Music programmes, whatever your personal taste, provide the chance to
listen to music which is popular in other countries, be it rock, pop, jazz or
classical. When you tune into a pop/rock station, in many countries most
of the songs you hear are in English, but you will also hear how the DJ talks
about or links the items played. On the other hand, such programmes
demand less attention and concentration when your main purpose is to
listen to the music.

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Discussions and phone-ins give you an opportunity to hear a range of
people expressing opinions on the same topic, or to hear the same kinds of
question put to different people.
Adverts during the breaks on commercial radio stations are short, often
supported by sound effects to set the scene. You can employ a similar
approach with these as with TV adverts.
Task 7.9 Finding the right radio programmes for you
Locate a radio station broadcasting in the language you are learning.
Listen to at least three different types of programme.
Which do you ﬁnd most interesting or easiest to follow? Why do you think
this is?
Comment
When you look for radio stations and programmes, try out a whole range of
programmes and choose according to your interests. Programmes on topics
which you have already heard or read about in your own language or in the
language you are studying are likely to be easier to follow. A familiar programme
format, such as the weather forecast, quizzes or phone-ins can also be a great
help.
When you have found a programme you like, you could record an edition
and listen to it later, for gist ﬁrst, then for more detail. You might like to use a
grid or checklist such as the ones for use with TV broadcasts in the previous
section.
Audio books
These have become popular and widely available in many countries. They
can be purchased in good bookshops or from an Internet bookseller. Your
local library may have some in foreign languages. Cultural institutes which
have libraries (see ‘Embassies and institutes’) may offer audio books and
recorded radio drama on loan when you join their library. Like radio, audio
books are very ﬂexible and you can listen to them wherever you have access
to a cassette recorder or CD player. You might also be able to use the
original book as a transcript and to refer to sections of it while you are
listening.
Obviously, the language of audio books is not the same as the language
of live discussion. Audio books are readings of written texts, both ﬁction
and non-ﬁction, and follow the conventions of such texts in terms of the
vocabulary, grammar, structures and registers used. So you need to be aware

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that what you hear in audio books is not necessarily the same kind of
language that you will hear when talking to speakers of the language or
even on some radio programmes.
NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES
Reading or browsing through newspapers and magazines written in your
target language can not only improve your reading skills but also increase
your understanding of the cultures of communities where the language is
spoken and the issues that preoccupy them. A range of newspapers and
magazines in a variety of languages may be available from newsagents in
major towns and cities in the country where you live. Most newspapers and
magazines also have Internet editions although some are only accessible
by subscription. (See Chapter 8 on searching for resources.) It goes without
saying that there are considerable differences between the various types of
newspapers in most countries. It can be interesting to compare the
headlines of a tabloid in your target language with those of a quality paper
from the same day to see what the main differences are. If you are a more
advanced learner you could examine the content and compare some of the
articles in terms of format and language used.
Sample websites for non-subscription newspapers:
Süddeutsche Zeitung
http://www.sueddeutsche.de (German)
Der Standard
http://derstandard.at/ (Austrian)
Le Monde
http://www.lemonde.fr/ (French)
Corriere della Sera
http://www.corriere.it/ (Italian)
El Mundo
http://elmundo.es (Spanish)
Asahi Shimbun
http://www.asahi.com/home.html
(Japanese)
Pravda
http://www.pravda.ru/ (Russian)
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com offers a comprehensive list of
newspapers from all over the world which are available online.
To read and hear news presented in a wide variety of languages look
at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/us/languages.shtml
continued

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If you live near a university library, you may have access to LexisNexis, an online gateway to the press of the whole world, with a
sophisticated search facility which helps you focus on people and
themes you are interested in.
Once you ﬁnd an Internet edition of a useful newspaper or magazine,
set it up as your Internet home page. Even if you don’t have time to
read much as often as you would like, you will see the headlines every
time you use the Internet.
For lighter reading, you could consider magazines written for particular audiences (e.g. fashion, men’s health, ﬁshing, cookery) or look at the
celebrity or gossip press. Although these magazines do not interest
everyone, they have certain advantages for the language learner over other
newspapers and magazines. The articles tend to be shorter, there are lots
of photographs, and the topics are similar to what you would read in
equivalent magazines in your own language. These features make this type
of real-life reading material accessible to learners at all levels.
Magazines speciﬁcally produced for language learners are also available
for some languages. They offer edited texts with additional support, such
as vocabulary or extra exercises and sometimes come with a CD or an audio
cassette. For example, Authentik (http://www.authentik.com) publishes
magazines of articles and activities with cassette or CD for learners in
German, Spanish, French or Italian. Champs Elysées (http://www.champselysees.com/) produces audio magazines with transcripts in French, Spanish
(Puerta del Sol), Italian (Acquerello italiano) and German (Schau ins Land).
BOOKS
Reading for pleasure, becoming engrossed in a good plot or story line, is an
excellent way to unconsciously absorb the language you are learning. This
kind of reading has also been shown by research to be a very good way to
build up your vocabulary.
The type of book you may choose to read for pleasure obviously depends
on your personal interests and your proficiency in the target language.
Cartoons, comics or short stories are often more accessible than longer or
more serious ﬁction or non-ﬁction. Alternatively, as suggested earlier, you
could ﬁnd a dual-language text which has the original and the translation
in your own language side by side. Such books are available in many
languages through bookshops or Internet booksellers. Another possibility
is to buy a target language version of a book which you are already familiar

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with in your own language. Reading it in the foreign language will be much
easier because you know the story line already.
If you are concerned about tackling a ‘real’ book, you could look for
graded readers. These are simpliﬁed versions of well-known works of ﬁction
or non-ﬁction produced especially for language learners at different levels.
They sometimes include questions or activities to guide you through the
text.
Task 7.10 Finding reading material
Search your home/workplace/neighbourhood/district/the Internet to locate
appropriate reading material written for speakers of your target language.
Comment
To remind yourself how to make the most of any reading material you ﬁnd, refer
to Chapter 5.
THE INTERNET
Chapter 8 examines ways in which a language learner can make use of the
Internet and the Web. As you have already seen, most newspapers,
magazines (including programme listings), television and radio stations
have websites. In addition to information or articles, they often offer
streamed audio and video broadcasts, games and discussion boards where
you can read different opinions, get a real understanding of the range of
viewpoints in any country and even make your own contribution. Using
the target language like this can be extremely motivating. But, as Chapter
8 makes clear, the Web is largely unregulated and you can ﬁnd many rather
obscure sites. If you browse in your mother tongue, you will easily and
almost immediately recognize different types of website. This might be a
little harder to do in the target language. Use your common sense and stick
to well-known websites from providers that you recognize and trust.
Task 7.11 Using a website
Go to the website of a TV station broadcasting in the language you are learning.
What current issues are being discussed on the site?
How do they compare with what you have heard or read about current issues
in your own country?

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If you feel conﬁdent in using the target language and inspired by a topic, you
might want to add a comment yourself.
Comment
There are many other activities you can do using websites. Try to use them in
the way the designers intended, even if you are only pretending. For example,
look at travel and hotel sites to plan a real or imaginary visit. Shop at store
websites for clothes or electrical equipment (but remember it is just language
practice and don’t place an order at the end!). Use tourist information sites to
schedule a week-long tour. Many tourist websites have versions in several
languages, so after having organized a virtual tour in your target language,
you could check your understanding by reading the version in your mother
tongue.
PEOPLE ARE RESOURCES TOO!
Competent speakers of the target language can be very useful to you as
a learner. When you are abroad, set yourself tasks which will force you
to talk to the locals. Ask the way to the station. Say you are a foreigner
and looking for the best bakery. If you are staying for a while, in a French
gîte for example, try to get to know the owners or the neighbours. Invite
them for an apéritif or a game of tennis. You will probably need to overcome
your own reluctance, but being bold can pay off linguistically (see Chapter
3, ‘Taking risks and learning from mistakes’). If you ﬁnd that people almost
immediately start speaking to you in your own language, try to explain to
them that you are serious about learning their language. It might be a good
idea to work out how to say this in advance. It is likely to have a positive
effect on them and they may adopt a more patient attitude towards your
attempts in their language.
Even at home, you may ﬁnd there are competent speakers of the target
language in your area. Do not neglect personal security, but perhaps
you might post a notice in the post ofﬁce or the local college saying you
want to exchange English for Japanese or Italian conversation, for example.
This could lead to regular meetings at a mutually convenient time and
place when you agree to speak for one hour in each language. Sympathetic
speakers of the language will provide support by repeating, speaking slowly
and clearly and explaining when you don’t understand, so this kind of
exchange can be very productive indeed. (See Chapter 10 for more on
‘Making the most of support from other speakers of the language’).

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OTHER RESOURCES
Embassies and institutes
Most embassies offer not only visa and consular services but are active in
promoting their country in many different ways. Very often embassies have
departments devoted to national culture which offer a lot of information,
sponsor events and organize a variety of cultural activities.
The cultural institutes of foreign countries are also a good resource for
language learners. These organizations may offer language courses (either
in your home country or in the countries where the target language is
spoken), and can provide information about these countries, organize
events and exhibitions, sometimes have libraries which you can use and
normally have fairly comprehensive websites with lots of information and
links.
For a list of foreign embassies around the world, go to
http://www. embassyworld.com
To ﬁnd information about cultural institutes in the UK, go to
http:// www.visitingarts.org.uk/uk_cultural_institutes.html
Clubs and associations
Many clubs, especially charitable associations, such as the Lions and Rotary
in the UK, have links with their equivalents in other countries. There
are also town twinning associations. Check whether your city, town or
village has a twinning arrangement with the country whose language you
are interested in. You can then take part in (or even set up) visits, cultural
or language exchanges. Furthermore, many towns and cities, especially
those with universities, have foreign language associations which run
varied programmes of cultural and social events. They may also have arts
centres which sometimes show foreign language ﬁlms.
Libraries
Libraries are another potential resource for you as a language learner. If you
have a library in your area it may have a collection of materials in foreign
languages which you can use. Many libraries welcome suggestions for books
and other materials to be ordered. All libraries offer an inter-library loan
service, i.e. you can request a book that your library doesn’t hold and they
will get it for you from another library (there may be a fee for this service).
Libraries in the UK also offer access to the Internet so that you can browse
for relevant target language websites or read parts of a newspaper online if
you do not have the facilities at home.

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Task 7.12 Using the world as classroom
Now that you are aware of the variety of real-life resources at your disposal and
how you might use them, think again about your priorities for your language
learning.
Make a note of three real-life language resources which you can use to help
you work on a priority area:
᭿
᭿
᭿
Decide how you will use them.
Remember to set yourself a deadline for completing each activity.
When you have ﬁnished, review the results.
Comment
You may ﬁnd it helpful to review what you did for Task 7.3 and reﬁne the plans
you made at that point.
Summary of key points
• There are many real-life resources available to support your
language learning.
• TV, radio, printed media, the Internet and other speakers of the
language offer valuable insights into the cultures of your target
language and resources for language learning.
• There are activities you can do on your own or with a partner
using real-life resources to improve your reading and listening, as
well as your writing and speaking.
• For successful learning and high motivation, choose real-life
resources that are right for you, and which match your interests
and level of proﬁciency.
• Real-life resources are available for learners at all levels.
• Most adult learners benefit from concentrating more on the
meaning when using real-life resources, while looking out for
examples of language forms or vocabulary they have studied.
• As a learner, you are very likely to be more successful if you take
an active approach to using real-life resources in your target
language.

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8
Using ICT to support your
language learning
Lesley Shield, Klaus-Dieter Rossade,
Fernando Rosell-Aguilar and Tita Beaven
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is increasingly used
in language courses and to support language learning. It offers a wide range
of different language learning opportunities, from CD-ROMs and electronic dictionaries to word-processing, email and the World Wide Web
(Web). This chapter is about the role ICT can play in supporting and
enhancing your language learning and how you can use these opportunities
to best advantage.
Because ICT is a rapidly changing area, the chapter does not provide
information about individual tools and applications; rather, it offers ideas
about some of the ways in which you may use these in your language
learning. While it contains advice and ideas for very experienced ICT
users, it is mainly for people who have some experience of using ICT but
wish to extend their skills to support their language learning. It also offers
information for people with some ICT skills but with little or no experience
of using ICT in their studies and who wish to explore further the possibilities it offers. If you have no knowledge of ICT, you may wish to leave
this chapter until you have learned basic technical skills.
TYPES OF ICT TO SUPPORT LANGUAGE LEARNING
This chapter is divided into three major sections which explore:
• Electronic resources These include materials specially developed for
language learning, like those you can ﬁnd on CD/DVD-ROMs and the
Web. They are grouped under the umbrella of Computer Assisted
Language Learning (CALL). You will also find out more about
resources such as electronic books (e-books), electronic dictionaries
and target language websites.

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• Productivity tools These include word-processors, spreadsheets, databases and referencing tools. This section examines some of the ways
productivity tools can beneﬁt your language studies.
• Communications tools These allow you to communicate with other people through your computer, for example via email or Instant Messaging
(IM). They are classified as Computer-Mediated Communication
(CMC).
USING ELECTRONIC RESOURCES IN YOUR STUDIES
There are a large number of electronic resources to support you in your
language learning. Depending on the type of learner you are (see Chapter
1) and your language learning priorities (see Chapter 4), you may ﬁnd some
more useful than others at different points in your studies. Base your
decision about which type of electronic resources to use on the activitytypes offered and what you intend to achieve, rather than on the medium
alone.
Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) materials
CALL materials currently come in two main formats: CD/DVD-ROMs,
and web-based. Some are designed for classroom use, whereas others can
be used independently. They can provide support for language learning
through a wide variety of exercises. They may be useful if you have limited
access to traditional classes or like to work independently but they can also
provide extra practice to supplement attendance at language classes. CALL
materials allow you to work at your own pace and at your own convenience,
providing language practice, as well as some cultural insights.
They may be available through libraries, some booksellers, in language
centres or located by searching online (see ‘Finding materials and resources
on the Web’).
CD/DVD-ROMs
These usually contain audio and/or video resources, as well as text, with a
variety of tailor-made ‘interactive’ exercises suited to a speciﬁc language
level.
Among the language learning resources you may find on CD/DVDROMs are:
•
•
•
•
•
grammar explanations and quizzes;
texts and reading comprehension exercises;
dictionaries and vocabulary-building exercises;
audio and video clips;
speech recognition/recording facilities;

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• word and sentence pronunciation activities;
• dictation activities;
• games and quizzes.
Examples of these activity types may include:
• reading a grammar explanation and then completing exercises that
illustrate the grammar point explained (or vice versa);
• reading a text, listening to an audio or watching a video clip and
answering questions about its content;
• repeating the sounds in an audio clip, recording yourself, listening to
your recording and comparing it with the original.
As well as using multimedia materials such as CD/DVD-ROMs, you may
ﬁnd that language courses offer you the opportunity to take part in other
computer-assisted activities, such as text-based gap-ﬁlling, multiple choice
and text reconstruction activities (e.g. putting a text in the correct order).
You may be introduced to game-like text mazes which lead you to different outcomes depending on the options you choose or answers you give at
different points in the game. In some cases, you may even be asked to use
speciﬁc software to create your own text-based language learning activities,
because this will help you to understand more about the structure and
content of the target language.
Language teachers often develop such text-based CALL activities to
accompany a particular course. Therefore they are more closely tailored to
the content of your course than more generic CD/DVD-ROM materials
available from publishers. These resources share many of the advantages
and disadvantages of commercially produced CD/DVD-ROMs for language
learning considered below, but have the advantage that they can be
regularly updated and are included in the price of your course.
Web-based CALL materials
CALL materials are also available online via the Web. While a large
number can be accessed free of charge, some require a subscription. Many
of these resources are similar to those on CD/DVD-ROMs, but others
provide links (called hyperlinking) to resources outside the materials. For
example, in order to complete an activity you may be asked to click on
these links to obtain information from a daily online newspaper, or to
search for meanings in an online dictionary.
Advantages and disadvantages of CALL materials
Style of activities/content
CALL materials often offer you the opportunity to compare your own
spoken and written performance with spoken and written models using

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similar techniques to those suggested in Chapter 6 for pronunciation, for
example. Because CALL learning activity types are usually designed from
a template, they can sometimes lack variety or be repetitive. However,
repetition can be a good way of reinforcing what you have learned. If you
need more repetition to help you produce different structures or expressions
automatically, then such exercises are ideal.
A major advantage of CALL materials is that they offer instant feedback
on your performance. However, such feedback can be limited; for example,
a good answer may be deemed wrong because of a capital letter or a missing
accent. This is because the computer can usually do no more than provide
a standard model answer to compare with your own version, rather than
responding to different ways of expressing the same ideas. If you want to
work on improving your accuracy, this feedback can be very helpful. If you
are more interested in creating your own responses or elaborating on your
ideas, you may ﬁnd this type of feedback frustrating.
The types of activities and feedback available mean that many students
find language learning CD/DVD-ROMs are best suited to beginner and
intermediate levels. Web-based CALL materials can offer more variety
through the use of hyperlinks, but feedback is still limited to automated
responses or emails with results from completed exercises.
Just as representations of the cultures of the target language offered by
courses using books, audio and video tapes can sometimes perpetuate
stereotypes, this is something you should also be aware of when using
CALL materials.
Access and use
Language learning CD/DVD-ROMs are widely available in a range of
prices, although it is important to be aware that price does not necessarily
reﬂect quality. Such resources can date quickly and may have limited use.
Once you have completed the exercises you can redo them, but if you want
new ones you may have to buy another CD/DVD-ROM, or gain access to
a dedicated website with updates and additional resources. Navigating
through the materials can also be complicated. Some packages include
features such as sound effects (e.g. signalling a right or wrong answer).
These can be motivating or become distracting depending on your personal
preference. Find out as much as you can about a particular CD/DVD-ROM
before purchasing it.
The quality of web-based materials also varies enormously. Try to ﬁnd
out as much as possible about the site you want to use. Self-made sites can
be interesting, but be aware that most have not gone through a strict
editing or quality assurance process. Normally, materials created by universities or reputable providers are a good starting point, so look closely
at the web page address to check who hosts the site. Web-based materials
can be updated more easily than those on CD/DVD-ROMs. Navigating
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web browsers (for more on these, see the next section), although this is not
always the case.
Web-based CALL materials have the advantage that, unlike CD/
DVD-ROMs, access to a particular operating system (e.g. Windows or
MacOS) is not necessary. Problems with non-functioning web pages or
busy networks can still occur. Accessing and using these materials also
requires you to stay online. As with all online materials, speed of access
depends on the bandwidth (Internet connection) you are using. Users with
faster connections experience signiﬁcantly better performance from sites
incorporating audio and video clips. However, activities that rely on video
files in particular are usually best accommodated on CD/DVD-ROM.
These also allow you to locate speciﬁc points in video and sound clips both
quickly and easily.
The Web
Many people use the terms Internet (or Net) and the World Wide Web
(or Web) as if they were the same thing. In fact, the Internet refers to a
network of connected computers, the ‘physical’ side. The World Wide Web
is one of the facilities the Internet offers for obtaining information from
other computers that are also linked to the Internet. This information is
held in the form of web pages, which may be linked to one another. A web
browser enables you to locate the information, save it, bookmark it and
so on. A web page has an ‘address’ which is what the web browser looks
for when connecting different pages. These addresses are called URLs
(Universal Resource Locators).
The Web is not a structured database and no one keeps an eye on what
is there or what is missing from the information available. Its content in
many ways depends on its users. As anyone can do their own ‘publishing’
online, the subjects covered vary widely in terms of content and quality.
Despite this, the Web offers access to many resources and activities: it
can be used to access web-based CALL materials (described above), locate
real-life materials in the target language, access electronic libraries, ﬁnd
information on an inﬁnite range of topics, use grammars and dictionaries,
translate texts, and more. In order to access some resources, particularly
audio and video files, you may need to download additional programs
(usually available free and known as plug-ins) from the Web.
What sorts of resources are available on the Web for language
learners?
There are two main categories of online resources: those designed
speciﬁcally for language learners, and those primarily aimed at speakers of
the target language for a multitude of purposes unconnected with language
learning. Some resources designed for language learning have already been

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mentioned (web-based CALL material), others are considered in the later
parts of this section on electronic resources.
Web resources intended for speakers of the target language
Chapter 7 suggests a variety of ways in which you can make use of these
real-life resources for language learning. You can also make use of web pages
that have been written primarily for speakers of your target language in the
same way as you might use ‘traditional’ sources of information such as
books, newspapers and brochures. Web pages usually provide up-to-date
information (though check when they were last updated) which you can
use when preparing essays or projects, for example, in the same way as you
would use materials from a library.
Your use of the Web for language learning does not have to be restricted
to language practice, essay or project preparation. You can also ﬁnd information about the weather, local traditions or music, for example, or follow
your own interests by searching for information about your favourite hobby,
celebrity, ﬁlm and so on, all in the target language. You can ﬁnd bilingual
websites and read about a particular topic, ﬁrst in the target language and
then in your mother tongue to check your understanding. You can access
different varieties of your target language and obtain information about
the geography, history, government and so on of the different places where
it is spoken. These resources are available as texts as well as audio and video
clips, ranging from songs to news reports, cartoons or ﬁlms.
Advantages and disadvantages
Web-based audio and video ﬁles can give you access to materials that might
otherwise be difﬁcult or expensive to ﬁnd outside the area where the target
language is spoken. They can provide an opportunity to experience other
cultures without having to travel. This material may be difﬁcult to understand if it assumes knowledge of the politics or history of a country, for
example. Chapter 7 also explains the importance of selecting material
appropriate to your level of language and gives guidance on what may make
some video, TV broadcasts or text-based materials easier to use than others.
As in the case of web-based CALL materials, web pages do not require
access to a particular operating system, but they can present similar
problems in relation to speed of access. Some web page providers offer the
option to vary sound or picture quality, thus making the material available
to people with slower connections.
Finding materials and resources on the Web
The Web offers two main ways to ﬁnd material: browsing (or surﬁng) and
searching. Browsing involves following links from page to page. You may
start in a directory of useful addresses (such as those offered by many
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pages. Directories of this sort are usually divided into content sections, and
permit you to follow links related to topics that interest you. For example,
if you go to the website of a cultural institute (see Chapter 7) you will ﬁnd
links which you can follow to a variety of other sites on the arts, media and
society in the country concerned.
Searching involves using search engines, tools for ﬁnding information
Based on the keywords you enter, a search engine ﬁnds matches and shows
all the links to web pages related to these keywords. The ‘search’ facility
on your computer employs one of the many search engines available. The
search systems of individual search engines are different, so if you cannot
find something by using one search engine, try searching with another.
Some search engines also offer directories so you can both browse and
search.
If you are studying a language course through a college, university or
other educational institution, you are likely to be given access to electronic
library resources. Make the most of this opportunity and make sure you
obtain information about how to use the library effectively. Some electronic libraries provide language resources identiﬁed by specialist librarians
and language teachers who have already carried out searches for relevant
materials for learners of different target languages. These may include links
to target language websites, to e-books that may be of interest or to
electronic dictionaries, with advice on how to use them. They may also
include advice on how to insert special characters into your word-processed
documents or how to set up your computer to read and produce nonRoman character sets. (See also the section ‘Using productivity tools in
your studies’ later in this chapter).
Task 8.1 Using search engines
1
Imagine you want to check who the king of Spain is.
᭿
Using a familiar search engine, enter these keywords:
–
‘king Spain’
What happens? Are all the results relevant?
– ‘who is king of Spain’
What happens? Are all the results relevant?
᭿ More appropriate search terms would probably be:
– ‘Spanish monarchy’ or ‘List Spanish kings’
What happens?
2
Now imagine that you want to ﬁnd out about churches in Spain.
᭿
Key in the Spanish word for churches (iglesias).
What happens when you enter these keywords?

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Comment
The different results from these searches show the importance of choosing
keywords carefully and being as precise as possible. Otherwise you may end
up with links to hundreds of irrelevant web pages. Your search for information
about churches in Spain for example may have led to web pages about a
pop-singer with that name. If you want to improve these results, you need to
qualify the type of church, e.g. ‘Romanic churches’ or ‘iglesias románicas’.
Using search engines
• Use a search term in your target language. If you want to ﬁnd out
about types of house in Spain, for example, type casa rather than
house.
• Limit your search results to pages either in the target language or
from areas where it is spoken. Many search engines allow you to
set this option by going to ‘preferences’ or ‘language tools’.
• Use either a search engine from the area where the target language
is spoken or an international search engine in your target
language.
• Most search engines have an ‘advanced search’ option or will give
you tips on how to use symbols to limit your search. For example
use inverted commas (“”) to make sure that the search terms you
key in appear together in the results, or use symbols such as +, –,
AND, OR to specify whether your search terms must all appear
in the results, terms you do not wish to appear, etc.
Task 8.2 Using target language search engines
Go to the home page of a familiar search engine. Is there a link to versions from
different countries (and in different languages)? Follow one of these links to try
using a search engine in your target language.
Try changing the ‘.com’ or ‘.co.uk’ ending from your usual search engine for
that of the country where the target language is spoken (such as ‘.es’, ‘.fr’, or
‘.de’). In some cases this will give you that country’s version of the search
engine.

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Try using search terms in the target language. Imagine, for example, that you
are interested in ﬁnding out about London from a Spanish point of view. Go to
the Spanish version of your usual search engine and type Londres rather than
London. Limit the results to those only in Spanish to see what difference this
makes.
Comment
With practice and time to experiment, it becomes easier to locate relevant
web pages and information. However, once you have found them, you will need
to evaluate them, as explained in the section ‘Evaluating Web materials and
resources’.
It is useful to make a note of relevant URLs located by browsing or
searching, as well as the addresses of web pages you use frequently. Organize
them in the appropriate folder in your web browser so you can ﬁnd them
quickly at a later date or use them as references in your written work. The
content of the Web changes constantly which makes it an excellent source
for up-to-date materials. Yet, at the same time, some of the resources you
use or like may disappear without warning. You can, however, store information you ﬁnd online in a number of ways. You can print pages, save them
in their original format, or cut and paste what you need into a document,
making sure that you are not violating copyright declarations. You need to
acknowledge all online material you use in your work and ensure you are
not inadvertently plagiarizing information (see Chapter 6 on incorporating
language from other sources and Chapter 9, ‘Completing your assignment’).
Rules to acknowledge online material vary, but usually you will need to
provide the URL and the date when you accessed the material, as most
pages are updated and the content may change at a later date.
Evaluating Web materials and resources
The fact that anyone can publish material on the Web without any sort of
editorial ‘quality control’ means that the information you ﬁnd may not be
accurate, the use of language may be incorrect or the author may be biased.
It may even be a hoax.
Examine online sources carefully using the following questions:
• What is the URL? Is it from a reputable source?
• Who is the author? What are the author’s sources?
• What is the purpose of this site? Might it be biased in favour of a
particular point of view? Who is the intended audience?
• Who has links to this site? What other sites does this site link to?
• When was this site last updated?

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Task 8.3 Evaluating websites
Go to a familiar search engine and type (between inverted commas) ‘feline
reactions to bearded men’.
Among the results you should ﬁnd a page with a research paper on the topic
of cats and bearded men by Catherine Maloney and others. Click on it. Read
the paper and the references and then answer the questions listed above.
What do you conclude about this web page?
Comment
As you will have probably found, the site is a satire on academic writing. The
URL will have given you a clue, as well as the content, the authors and titles in
the references provided. Although at ﬁrst glance it may look like an academic
paper, it is only by reading it that you notice the humorous tone. Going back to
the sites that link to this web page, do you think that everyone that links to it
has noticed its real purpose?
Publishing your own material on the Web
Although web publishing is outside the scope of this chapter, your language
course may require you to use the Web to present information to your peers,
either by yourself or in collaboration with others. If so, it is likely that you
will either provide your tutor with material for publishing or be given clear
instructions on how to publish it yourself.
E-books
An e-book is an electronic version of a paper book. You may wonder
why you would want to use an e-book as opposed to a paper one. Paper
books are usually more portable than a computer, but e-books do not
have to be kept on a desktop computer. You can download an e-book to a
laptop computer or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) and take it with you.
Individual paper books may be portable, but it is much easier to transport
large numbers of e-books on a single computer or PDA than it is to carry
several paper books with you.
Like paper books, you can bookmark and annotate e-books although not
all e-books have the same features or functionality. However, unlike paper
books, they can be searched quickly for specific items and may include
multimedia content such as sound and video clips as well as providing builtin dictionaries that allow you to ﬁnd the meaning of any word simply by
clicking on it.

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To examine one of the oldest and largest selections of free e-books,
type ‘Project Gutenberg’ in your preferred search engine. Otherwise, for a
variety of websites where you can download e-books, simply search starting
with the keyword ‘e-books’.
Electronic dictionaries and grammars
Electronic dictionaries and grammars are available in a variety of formats
which are described in this section. Some people like to use paper dictionaries and grammars, others prefer to use electronic devices. See Chapter
3 for ways of using a dictionary and the features which a good dictionary
should have. Look at both types of dictionary carefully to ﬁnd out what
they offer and what you would ﬁnd most useful.
CD/DVD-ROMs
A range of electronic dictionaries is available on CD/DVD-ROM. Some
of the features of these dictionaries are not available in paper-based
dictionaries. For example, some offer a ‘pop-up’ facility. If you are working
on a document on your computer, you can click on a word, and a window
with a definition or translation instantly opens, a useful feature when
reading or writing electronic documents in a foreign language.
Some CD/DVD-ROM dictionaries provide a pronunciation guide; you
can listen to the pronunciation of a word, and sometimes even select the
regional accent you want to listen to, recording yourself in order to compare
your pronunciation with the original. Other features may include maps,
pictures and video clips to clarify meanings, and activities and games such
as crosswords to test and practise your vocabulary.
The major publishers of dictionaries also produce CD/DVD-ROM
versions. You may ﬁnd details through a bookshop or Internet bookseller,
or through an online search.
Handheld electronic dictionaries and translators
These devices can store vast amounts of data, and are very portable.
You can key in a word, or part of a word, and immediately access its
meaning or translation. Sometimes you can also listen to its pronunciation,
either alone or in context. Some handheld electronic dictionaries even
contain banks of commonly used phrases, similar to traditional phrase
books.
Scanning pens
A number of monolingual or bilingual dictionaries produced by reputable
publishers are available to use with scanning pens. These tools can be used
like a highlighter to scan and save text from a book or other printed
document, and then transfer it to a computer or PDA. When using one
with these dictionaries, you slide the pen over a word or phrase to obtain

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an instant deﬁnition or translation. For accurate scanning, you may need
to practise with the angle and speed of the pen.
Concordancers
A concordancer is a software tool that allows analysis of very large amounts
of language. These are kept in collections of texts or transcriptions of
spoken utterances known as corpora. Used appropriately, concordancers
can demonstrate how a language is used in different contexts. This can
assist language learners by providing examples of real use to supplement
the model examples found in textbooks.
Corpora and concordancing tools are best accessed through university
libraries and may require a subscription. Learning to use a concordancer
can be both technically and conceptually challenging. However, examining a corpus with a concordancer can rapidly reveal information about
the target language such as:
• frequently occurring words;
• rarely used words;
• differences between spoken and written usage.
Concordancing can also show:
• any patterns, known as collocations (see Chapters 5 and 6) that occur
in the use of certain words or phrases;
• the context in which words occur.
USING PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS IN YOUR STUDIES
The productivity tools covered in this section can help you with all aspects
of text production (word-processing), presenting your work (presentation
tools), processing and calculating data within tables (spreadsheets), and
organizing and ﬁnding stored information (databases). Often also referred
to as ‘ofﬁce’ applications because of the everyday ofﬁce tasks they support,
these are now used widely in education.
Each office component application is optimized for specific tasks. If
you are learning a language for general purposes, word-processing and
presentation tools may offer you the best return for the time you need to
familiarize yourself with the application. If, however, your needs are more
speciﬁc, you may ﬁnd that understanding how to work with databases and
spreadsheets, for example, is well worth the effort.
As with all modern technology, the excitement about what is technically
possible needs to be balanced against your learning needs and how much

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time you require to familiarize yourself with the software. If all your needs
can be met by word-processing, for example, you might not need more than
this and could use the remainder of the time for your language studies!
Word-processing
Language learning often involves producing written work (dialogues, notes,
plans, essays, etc.), and word-processing can assist you at any stage of the
production process (see Chapter 6, ‘Preparing what you want to say and
write’, and ‘Strategies to help with composition’).
Gathering ideas, planning and organizing your work
You may welcome the opportunity just to write what comes to mind
and put your thoughts in order later. This could lead to a plan for an essay
where you detail how you will present the information you gathered and
the structure of your argument. Different headings and font sizes,
indentation, italics and boldface font can help you structure your plan. At
the same time, these features of word-processing mean that you can choose
the font, font-size, colour and background colour which you ﬁnd clear and
easy to read, whether composing your own text, or reading material from
other sources.
Each time you add or change content this will be incorporated into the
existing document. You can work on any section at any time or simultaneously on several sections. A word-count facility allows you to monitor
your progress. This is particularly important if you have a strict word
limit.
It is possible to enter all your notes into one document and save useful
quotations there too, perhaps using different heading styles and paragraph
numbering to keep track of what you have entered. Later, you will be able
to find any section instantly by looking for key words with the ‘find’
function. If you are working with electronic sources, you can copy and paste
useful sections straight from the source to your ‘notes’ document for a
particular topic, which can then be used for assignments. This can save
time, prevent spelling errors and, over time, help you build an impressive
personal resource base, a kind of electronic index card system which you
can draw on whenever necessary.
Earlier in this chapter, you were advised to keep details of sources of
information you ﬁnd on the Web. In the same way, make sure you reference
such material appropriately, both in your ‘notes’ ﬁles and when you include
quotations in any work you present as part of your language studies.
Many word-processing applications include a thesaurus. A thesaurus
can ‘teach’ you new words with either similar or opposite meaning (synonyms and antonyms) as and when you need them. This can help you to
convey ideas in your own words or may help you understand and remember
new words or expressions in future. Other functions supported by many

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word-processing applications include automatic footnotes or endnotes and
contents pages, which may be of use if your course requires you to write a
more academic essay.
Word-processing applications can perform a number of sorting actions,
by lines or paragraphs, alphabetically or numerically. These can be used in
building your personal glossary or encyclopedia on any aspect of the target
language and culture. Just enter new information or vocabulary as you ﬁnd
it and sort it alphabetically or by topic at your convenience.
Checking your work
All but the most basic word-processing applications have a spellchecker
which may even correct common spellings automatically as you type.
Some also have a grammar-checker which you can use to help you with
your language production. You will need to select the appropriate language,
and in some cases the language variety you prefer (e.g. Colombian Spanish,
Swiss German or Canadian French).
Target language grammar-checkers available in word-processing programmes as standard are sometimes difﬁcult to use as a language learner.
They require an advanced understanding of the target language grammar
in order to use them effectively. However, grammar-checkers speciﬁcally
designed for language learners are being developed. Some of these offer
explanations of speciﬁc points of grammar based upon analysis of frequently
occurring errors.
Producing your documents
For some, word-processors are invaluable as they allow users to write
quickly without worrying about legibility. If you type regularly, even the
‘two-ﬁnger-touch-type-method’ will lead to considerable speeds. However,
if your course or your preferred mode of study requires a lot of writing, you
should perhaps consider taking an inexpensive or even free touch-typing
course. A few sessions will give you the basics of ten-ﬁnger typing, while
speed and accuracy will develop when you apply your typing skills during
your language learning. Whichever method you use to type, however, your
ﬁnished product will be easy to read.
You can type language specific characters like the German ß or the
French ç in a number of ways. For computers using Windows, one way is
to press Number Lock, hold the ALT-key on your keyboard and enter,
for example, 225 for the ß character to appear. For Macintosh computers,
enter Option + s. Character key charts for Windows and Macs are widely
available on the Web. Alternatively, use the ‘Insert’ menu or its equivalent,
select ‘Symbol’ and look for the character you need.
If you type a lot in the target language, it may be worth changing your
keyboard setting to that language. Each time you press a specific combination of keys, your keyboard settings will switch from one language to

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another. Consult the manual for your computer’s operating system to ﬁnd
out how to do this or search the Web, as a number of sites explain the
procedure in great detail.
Task 8.4 Using target language characters
Connect to the Internet and search the Web for general information about
speciﬁc characters in your target language. In your preferred search engine,
type ‘foreign language character charts’. Search also for information on
keyboard layouts for your target language.
Comment
When you ﬁnd the information, print it out and keep it to hand for future use.
Presentation tools
Presentation tools allow you to combine text, drawings, images, charts,
artwork, audio and video ﬁles. The resulting document can be projected
via a computer and a data-projector (beamer) onto a large screen.
Presentation tools may appear to offer possibilities far beyond your needs
as a language learner, but even the short presentations you may be required
to make will be more accessible if presented attractively, perhaps supported
by a few well-chosen visual aids. We learn languages most effectively in
realistic contexts and if you are asked to give a brief presentation to fellow
learners, you will beneﬁt most if you try to engage your ‘audience’, in the
same way as any public speaker would do.
One of the most valuable features of presentation tools is that they offer
a number of preformatted slides and attractive backgrounds. You don’t have
to be a designer to design slides, A4-size transparencies or handouts that
present text and images in exciting ways help take your audience just about
wherever you want them to be. Some presentation tools also allow you to
time your presentation, which is helpful if you have to keep within a time
limit.
Another useful function is the overview mode, which can be either a
linear list or several small-sized slides (thumbnails) spread over the screen.
This function can help you to organize slides of information, opinions and
arguments in such a way that they support the natural delivery of your
presentation in the target language. Once the stages and sequence of your
presentation are ﬁnalized, you can print off a concise aide-memoire to guide
you through the delivery of your presentation. The handout-printing
facility which lets you print off several slides on one A4 sheet of paper
is of particular beneﬁt to language learners. Your audience can focus on
the content of your presentation rather than trying to take notes using

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words that may be unfamiliar to them. Chapter 6 gives further advice on
preparing for and delivering a presentation.
Remember to check what facilities are available at the place where you
will be making your presentation. Make sure you have a ‘plan B’, perhaps
a set of transparencies and printed copies of your slides, in case arrangements do not work out as expected.
Spreadsheets, databases and referencing tools
Spreadsheets organize numerical data in cells, columns and rows and facilitate a wide range of calculations. If you are studying business together with
a foreign language, or if your language course contains a vocational
element, you may need to calculate or present information in tables or
charts. A spreadsheet can save you valuable time here.
You can also use the table structure in spreadsheets for your own bilingual glossary, especially if you anticipate a large number of entries, as the
management of cells, rows and columns is generally easier than in wordprocessing applications. You can add new vocabulary, sort it later and,
depending on your requirements at the time, regroup sections of your
glossary without much effort. Remember, however, that spreadsheets are
not suitable if you want to enter large amounts of text into one cell (for
example, a lengthy deﬁnition).
Databases, like spreadsheets, organize data in cells, columns and rows.
They are most suitable for large volumes of data, for example the resources
held in a library. Here, databases have effectively replaced card index
systems, because the latter cannot match the search facilities of the former.
Database tools may provide more functionality than most language
learners need. However, if your course requires you to handle large numbers
of references and citations, or you intend to continue studying the target
language to higher levels in an academic context, you may want to investigate reference and citations managing software. Such applications allow
you to store references and citations and integrate this data into essays
and presentations. All the hard work of designing a database is done for
you. Time spent on formatting footnotes and writing bibliographies is
greatly reduced, especially if you use individual references in different
contexts.
It takes time, patience and diligence to build up your own database
of references and quotations, so, if you need one, it is advisable to start
‘collecting’ data right from the start of your studies even though it may
seem like extra work with the beneﬁts still a long way off.

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USING CMC IN YOUR STUDIES
Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) allows you to communicate
with others by using the computer to mediate your communication rather
like a telephone.
Types of CMC
Most CMC tools permit you to communicate both with individuals and
with groups. However, some only allow one-to-one communication, similar
to a telephone conversation (e.g. some sorts of Internet telephony). Others
only allow communication to and within groups as though you were in a
meeting or lecture, (e.g. some types of chat tool where you can only send
a message to an entire group, not an individual).
You can use CMC to communicate synchronously (in real time, e.g.
text chat) or asynchronously (in deferred time, e.g. email). Some CMC
tools allow synchronous and asynchronous communication within the
same environment, for example Instant Messaging described below. In
other words, you can ‘chat’ in real time with friends and colleagues who
are online at the same time as you and you can leave a message for others
to collect the next time they log in.
Finally, some CMC tools may allow you to communicate only in text or
in sound and/or in pictures (video). Others, such as audiographic conferencing, may let you draw on a whiteboard or edit documents with other
learners, or share websites and use text chat, for example, at the same time
as talking to them. Table 8.1 describes a range of types of CMC in more
detail.
A particular language course will probably use only some of these tools.
If your language learning provider does not already support some form
of CMC, you might consider organizing your own online learning group.
An Internet connection, a messaging application with audio support, a
web browser and a shared web space are all you need. The software is available free of charge, and once you have made the necessary arrangements
with other learners, you can communicate with them whenever you wish.
Chapter 3 explains the benefits of ‘Learning with others’. CMC is also
important because it can enable contact with speakers of your target
language, thus offering you the opportunity to use your language skills in
a meaningful way, as well as allowing you to find out more about their
culture(s).
Mobile technologies
You may already have a mobile phone or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)
and use these to communicate with other learners. Your language course
may also use forms of communication like SMS (short messaging service)
that employ technologies like mobile telephones or PDAs to send text
messages. For example, you may be sent vocabulary items via SMS, while

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Table 8.1 Types of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC)
Description
Email
Send a message or reply to one or more recipients. You
can usually also attach audio, video and graphics ﬁles as
well as text-based documents to your messages.
Bulletin boards and
discussion lists
Send messages that can be read by anyone who subscribes
to that forum. Messages may be threaded, i.e. grouped
according to topic, or unthreaded, i.e. you have to search
through all postings to ﬁnd related messages.
Note: if you send a message to a public forum, make sure
that you have read its policy about what constitutes an
acceptable posting.
Text, audio and
audiographic
conferencing
Membership is usually restricted and uses special
conferencing software. In text conferencing, messages are
posted into topic areas and then presented in threads. You
can send messages to the entire readership or to speciﬁc
individuals. Audio conferencing can be synchronous or
asynchronous; either you talk in real time with others or
you can leave voice messages in the same way as you
leave text messages in a text conference. As well as
supporting real-time audio and text conferencing,
audiographic conferencing introduces shared tools such as
a whiteboard, shared documents or shared web browser.
Blogs (weblogs)
A type of diary that you can publish on the Web. You can
publish text, graphics, audio and video clips and links to
other websites. Your blog may be public or private and
may be on any topic that interests you. You can write a
blog by yourself or allow others to post entries to it.
Chat and Instant
Messaging (IM)
Among the most popular forms of web-based
communication. Initially, they were text-based, and the
term chat is used in this chapter to refer to synchronous
communication in text, but now you can use them to
communicate in real-time audio and video as well. Chat
may use chatrooms or channels which can be public or
private. IM permits you to make lists of your friends and
tells you when they come online. As well as chatting, IM
usually allows you to send audio, video or text ﬁles, for
example, in real time to others online and permits you to
leave messages for people if they are ofﬂine.
Virtual worlds
Often mistakenly considered to be another form of chat.
While virtual worlds do allow you to chat, they were
developed from multiplayer role-playing games in the
1970s and permit users to ‘build’ their own areas, in text
or graphics, which are viewable by others. Chat only

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Table 8.1 continued
Virtual worlds
(continued)
exists while users are online; if nobody else is in a
chatroom, there is nothing for a user to do. Virtual worlds
exist whether or not anyone is logged in. Language
learning worlds often contain puzzles, quizzes and
language learning activities that you can interact with
while exploring the ‘surroundings’.
Video conferencing
Point-to-point: one group is gathered in a speciﬁc
real-world location to talk to others in another real-world
location. This sort of video conferencing is particularly
useful for lectures and presentations.
Desktop: connect to a video conference with other
individuals from your own computer. Unlike
point-to-point video conferencing, which is usually
supported by technicians, you are in charge of your
desktop video conference and have to manage it by
yourself.
you can use your PDA to read e-books as described earlier. If you have a
mobile phone, you could choose your target language as the setting for your
telephone. So, for example, if you are learning Swedish, you could set your
phone up so that it only shows the menus and commands in Swedish. That
way you quickly become familiar with these words. Although it is also
possible to send text messages from a computer to a mobile phone and to
divert email to your telephone or PDA, communication via mobile
technologies is not the focus of this section.
Communicating in text
You can use audio, audiographic and video conferencing tools to keep in
touch with other learners or your tutor, but text is still an important means
of communication, using either asynchronous or synchronous CMC. The
choice will depend on your reasons for communicating in text as explained
below.
Asynchronous text-based CMC
Asynchronous text-based CMC takes many forms, ranging from email
to text-conferencing systems, mailing lists and bulletin boards. Because
contact is deferred rather than immediate, these tools may be particularly
helpful if you are worried about contacting someone at an inconvenient
time or making a mistake in public. You can read or record each message
at your own convenience, using a dictionary to help you if necessary. Once
you have received, considered and understood a message, you can edit and
re-edit your own response, sending it only when you are happy with it.

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This type of CMC is probably most useful if you want to produce a
carefully crafted contribution or take part in in-depth discussions which
require you to explore and research topics and issues that are of relevance
to your course and to the reasons you have for learning another language.
Synchronous text-based CMC
Like asynchronous text-based CMC, there are many different types of
synchronous text-based CMC, such as chat. Despite differences in how
they operate, what these tools all have in common is that they allow
real-time communication with others in your target language. Although
you may worry about picking up bad habits by using chat because other
users make typing, spelling or grammatical errors that remain on the screen,
this usually does not happen; typing errors are generally noticed and
corrected. If you notice that you or someone else is having difﬁculty with
a grammatical point, for example, this can also be a good opportunity to
talk about the language and ﬁnd out more about how it can be used.
When you use chat tools, you can often use a nickname and even adopt
a different personality from your ‘real-life’ persona. This may make you feel
more conﬁdent when you use the target language, since nobody knows who
you really are, and so you may feel less embarrassed when you communicate
in the target language.
You may notice that when you use synchronous, text-based CMC, your
contributions to the discussion are shorter than when you use an asynchronous tool like email. Nevertheless, text-based conversations of this
sort offer you an opportunity to practise using the target language in real
time in an environment that allows you to edit your contribution before
you make it. As nobody can see what you are ‘saying’ before you send it,
you can edit your message until you are happy with it.
While you are likely to ﬁnd asynchronous CMC most appropriate when
you want to reflect and edit before you ‘go public’ with your thoughts,
synchronous CMC is useful for quick-fire exchanges of ideas and
comments, or if you simply want to respond brieﬂy to a question or request
for information.
Audiographic conferencing
In audiographic conferencing, several technologies combine into a kind of
communication ‘one-stop’ shop.
• You can actually hear and speak to other language learners and
simultaneously share visual, or ‘graphic’, tools such as online whiteboards, word-processing and image editors.
• A text chat tool may allow you to have conversations ‘on the side’ or
make announcements, for example, I’ll be back in 2 minutes, while the
main discussion continues.

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• You can talk to an individual or to a group. The person speaking may
be indicated in some way. You usually meet in a virtual ‘room’, but
learner groups may also split up into separate rooms for group work.
• You can either work and learn together or settle for casual social
interaction.
• Any participant of a learning group may be able to manipulate the
content of any of the shared graphical tools.
• You may be able to alter text documents, make notes of discussions and
perhaps represent results visually in diagrams or ﬂow charts.
• You may be able to insert images for controlled language work, e.g. a
map, for practising giving directions, cartoons or pictures to stimulate
open discussion.
Some audiographic CMC tools offer visual clues:
• a button indicating that someone wishes to speak can help groups with
turn taking;
• yes–no vote buttons allow you to give quick, non-verbal feedback,
similar to nodding or shaking your head in a face-to-face situation;
• small icons, or emoticons, like a smiley s or sad ß face can provide
rudimentary feedback in place of the non-verbal interaction features
(smiling, frowning) that characterize face-to-face encounters.
Any of these will make communicating online easier, but they are not
essential. If your language course requires you to use audiographic CMC,
you should be offered some form of technical support, such as a telephone
helpline.
Audiographic conferencing can overcome the restrictions of time and
space. You can meet with or without your tutor, organize self-help study
groups or work together on projects at times that are convenient, irrespective of where people live. Since language learning beneﬁts from regular
and frequent practice, it is easy to see how audiographic conferencing can
assist the process by enabling learners to meet and practise easily outside
scheduled classes. When you meet online, remember to establish basic
communication rules, e.g. Will anybody ‘chair’ the chat? How long will it
last? What is expected of you?
People bring their personal character traits with them when they meet
online, just as when they meet in other contexts. Learners from other
cultures may adhere to different communication conventions. Online
communication also has its own etiquette, or netiquette, which needs
to be considered. Lists of such virtual ‘rulebooks’ are widely available on
the Web.

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Figure 8.1 Four learners share access to an online discussion worksheet. Klaus is
speaking and Regine is waiting for her turn. She had typed a vocabulary question in
the text chat window earlier which another learner is about to answer.
Task 8.5 Finding out about netiquette
Applying the techniques outlined in ‘Finding materials and resources on the
Web’, use a familiar search engine to ﬁnd information about netiquette.
Comment
As suggested in Task 8.2, try replacing the endings ‘.com’ or ‘.co.uk’ in the
URL for your search engine with the address for a country where the target
language is spoken (such as ‘.es’, ‘.fr’ or ‘.de’). Now search for netiquette,
limiting your search to pages in the target language. Are there any differences?
Websites offering advice on netiquette vary depending on the nature of the
site, but also according to national conventions. Some deal with the use of
formal and informal language (tu or vous?). Some focus on the human
perspective of online communication, reminding you to keep it brief and not to
post messages in haste (you may later regret what you said). Others emphasize
technical aspects such as avoiding capitals (which is the equivalent of shouting)
or unusual characters which may not be universal or may be ‘translated’ into
different characters.

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Instant Messaging
While email is the preferred communication channel for many, Instant
Messaging (IM) is also hugely popular, with millions of users around the
world. Anyone can message and the software is generally free. Although
IM primarily uses a written channel, in some applications it is possible to
communicate in speech, too. It offers another way of keeping in contact
with other learners, your tutor or other speakers of your target language.
Check whether your Internet Service Provider (ISP) also provides access
to IM. If so, download the software. You then need to deﬁne one or several
lists of people you want to communicate with regularly. An example is
shown in Figure 8.2. If you click on a name in a ‘buddy list’, a window opens
into which you can type your message. If your buddy is online at the same
time as you, your message is delivered immediately and not, as in the case
of email, to a server from which it is forwarded to your inbox. Instant
Messaging ‘feels’ more immediate than email and tends to lead to more
spontaneous and shorter online conversations. If your buddy is ofﬂine when
you send a message, it will be stored until they are online again. Whether
delivered at once, or stored, your message or some kind of alert will pop up
on your buddy’s screen as soon as they log in.
Each time your buddies go online and log in you will be notified, for
example by a symbol changing colour next to their names. The same will
happen on their screens when you log in. This awareness of each other’s
presence can lead to an increased sense of a language learning community,
fellow learners who may be able to support you when necessary. Instant
Messaging with buddies from countries where your target language is
spoken can support a formal or informal TANDEM language learning
arrangement of the type described in more detail in Chapter 10.
Figure 8.2 A typical Instant
Messaging window showing all the
members, or buddies, of a messaging
group.

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However, because contact is not convenient at all times, most IM
applications permit you to signal to your messaging community whether
you are ready to engage in conversations. Status messages such as ‘free for
chat’, ‘busy’, ‘online, but away’ give you and your friends a richer picture
of each other’s presence, not just when they are online, but also whether
they want to talk. Compare this to telephoning a friend, only to ﬁnd that
the line is busy or nobody is answering! You can even go a step further and
reﬁne your status message by saying that you are working on an assignment
and don’t want to be disturbed unless it is about that assignment. Language
learners in need of opportunities to practise real-time communication
in the target language stand to gain considerably from regular contact
via IM.
Summary of key points
• ICT can be used for language practice, organizing and storing
language items, researching, preparing and producing written
work or presentations.
• ICT can enable you to establish and maintain regular contact with
your tutor, other language learners and other speakers of your
target language.
• Examine the different features offered by ICT tools and choose
according to how they can help you achieve your learning goals.
• Balance the time you spend familiarizing yourself with specific
ICT applications against the total time available for your studies.
• Using ICT for language learning also increases your general ICT
skills and potentially your employment prospects in the information age.

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9
Assessment
Concha Furnborough, Annette Duensing and
Mike Truman
Assessment is as much about learning as about getting marks and a
qualiﬁcation. This chapter aims to give an overview of the different types
of assessment that may be included in a language course, and to explain
some of the terminology you may encounter. It provides general advice and
speciﬁc tips on how to plan, complete and beneﬁt from doing assignments
as well as how to prepare for exams.
As language courses vary widely in their approaches to assessment, you
will ﬁnd some parts of this chapter more relevant to your needs than others.
Start by taking a general look at the aims and content of your course, and
then select sections of this chapter to read in more detail.
THE PURPOSE OF ASSESSMENT
There are many different views of assessment. Some people ﬁnd assessment
motivates them by providing them with a goal. Some need the grade to
obtain a speciﬁc qualiﬁcation. For others it is something of an ordeal or an
obstacle to their learning. Nevertheless, assessment can help you become
a better learner if you consider it more as a diagnostic process than simply
a statement of your weaknesses.
Task 9.1 What assessment means for you
Before you read on, take some time to reﬂect on assessment and what you
personally might gain from it. What are the benefits and drawbacks of
assessment for you? Why do you feel like this?

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Comment
Assessment can serve as:
1
2
3
4
5
6
a basis for accreditation, obtaining a qualiﬁcation;
a progress check for you on your learning;
a progress check for your tutor;
a source of feedback;
an opportunity to check on strengths and areas for revision;
an opportunity for further learning.
Whether or not point 1 is important to you depends on your personal aims.
However, points 2–6 can be valuable in helping you to make progress on your
course. Each will be explained in more detail in the following sections.
Assessment for accreditation, to gain a qualiﬁcation
Accreditation is an obvious reason for making assessment part of a language
course. In order to obtain your qualification, you will need to provide
evidence to the awarding institution that you have reached a certain
standard in your learning.
The assessment for your course could be internal or external, or even a
mixture of both, depending on who sets the assessment tasks, who decides
on the criteria by which students will be assessed, and who awards the
qualiﬁcation.
• Internal assessments are set, graded and awarded entirely by the
institution providing the course, for example, in an institution-wide
language programme at a university, or on Open University language
courses.
• Courses may prepare you for an externally set exam, such as the RSA
Certificate in Business Language Competence. In this case, your
teaching institution will help you prepare for the assessment but will
have no inﬂuence on the content of the examination.
• In other cases, an external body sets the syllabus, but the teaching
institution sets the assessments, for example, if your language study
is part of a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ), or the Open
College Network (OCN).
This distinction between internally or externally set assessments may
not matter to you. However, depending on your reasons for learning a
language, you may want to consider different options and their beneﬁts.
For example, if having a qualification as proof of your language level is
important to you, a nationally or internationally recognized award could

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187
be beneﬁcial, whereas if your aim is to learn a language for holiday purposes,
the form of accreditation may not be crucial.
• Consider how important accreditation is for you.
• Consider whether you need a nationally or internationally
recognized qualiﬁcation.
• Find out what sort of accreditation your course offers.
• Ask your tutor for advice if you are not sure that the accreditation
your course offers is right for you.
However, accreditation is not the only reason for assessment, and this
chapter is largely about showing you how much more assessment can offer
you.
Assessment to help you with your learning
Everyone needs some sort of benchmark against which to judge progress
in learning a language. For some, it could be the extent to which they can
follow a television news bulletin, or understand a business letter. If you are
able to use the language in everyday life (through work or frequent visits
to the country), this can provide opportunities for informal progress checks.
Many people feel the need for a more formal measurement of their progress.
This is where assessment comes in, providing a ‘third-party’ verdict to
reassure you of your progress in a more structured way, linked to the aims
of your course.
Assessment provides regular progress checks for both tutor and learner.
Your tutor will want to ﬁnd out what you can do well and what you still
ﬁnd difﬁcult. This kind of knowledge helps tutors to adapt their teaching,
providing you with help where you need it. Similarly, you gain an awareness
of your own strengths and weaknesses, both through the mark and the
feedback you receive on a particular piece of assessed work. You can then
adapt your study accordingly, and spend time on what is necessary, as
suggested in Chapter 4.
Formative and summative assessment
Connected to the two main purposes of assessment are two terms that you
may well come across in your course documentation (i.e. the written information about your course), formative and summative assessment.

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Success with Languages
Formative assessment
The main aim is to help you learn by informing you and your tutor of how
well you are doing. Formative assessment can simply consist of activities
or tests designed to show you whether you have successfully learned a
certain language point. It may also be intended as a ‘dry run’ for an assignment or examination. In all cases, the emphasis is not so much on passing
judgement on your performance, but on identifying your strengths and
weaknesses, and suggesting strategies to overcome the latter. Where marks
are awarded, their prime function is to provide you with feedback and
guidance.
Summative assessment
This form of assessment ‘sums up’ your learning. It usually takes place at
the end of a course of study, or of a particular unit or module within your
course. Once again, you will usually receive feedback on your performance,
but a major aim is to provide a grade for the completed section, in order
to give proof of the overall level you have achieved.
HOW ARE YOU GOING TO BE ASSESSED?
You will need to ﬁnd out what form of assessment is used in your language
course, because this has implications for the way in which you plan your
study. You should consider the following issues:
When will you be assessed?
Throughout your course you may be set exercises, tasks or projects that
you submit to your tutor by a certain deadline. This is called continuous
assessment. There may also be a ﬁnal assessment, i.e. an overarching task,
project or exam. Marks from both types of assessed tasks are likely to count
towards the ﬁnal mark for the course. To avoid creating too much stress or
anxiety for students, institutions that award qualiﬁcations are placing more
and more emphasis on continuous assessment. Final assessment is used to
check what students have achieved, taking into account everything they
have learned on a course.
Who will assess you?
Tutor, assessor or examiner?
You may have to hand in tasks at regular intervals during the course or send
them to your tutor by post or email. In other cases, e.g. assessment for
National Vocational Qualiﬁcations or for the Open College Network, you
may be required to perform tasks under observation as part of the lessons

203.
Assessment
Name of Tutor:
189
*******
Centre Name: *******
Unit No. FK12QQ006
Run Number: 1
Level: Two/Intermediate
Unit Title: Exchange Opinions and Ideas (Speaking)
Learning Outcomes
Student Names
Jim
Niko
Sue
Tej
Ana
Amir
1. Exchange ideas on a
chosen topical matter, in
the target language.
2. Exchange opinions on a
topic of current public or
social interest.
Figure 9.1 Tutor checklist: exchanging opinions and ideas.
Source: adapted from Chiltern Region Open College Network, Modern Languages
Framework, Tutor Checklist.
or in the workplace. Here you may not be given a grade, but so-called ‘can
do’ statements are used to describe your performance (see Figure 9.1).
Self-assessment
Self-assessment is also being used more and more. It can take different
forms but they all aim to help you evaluate your own progress and give
you responsibility for and inﬂuence over your own learning. One form of
self-assessment is the self-marked progress check which often tests grammar
or comprehension. You usually score these tests yourself with the help of
an answer key. The key may include explanations or references to course
material if you are unsure about a particular answer (see Figure 9.2). The
scores give you an understanding of which language points or skills you
need to study further and which you understand well.
Computer-marked assessment
This is similar in form to the self-marked progress check described above.
Tasks are done online and then submitted electronically for scoring (see
Figure 9.3). In addition to the score, you may receive automatically generated feedback as described in Chapter 8, ‘Advantages and disadvantages
of CALL materials’.
Learning log
Another, more personal, method of self-assessment is the learning log or
diary, described in Chapter 4, in which you reﬂect on your own progress
and record your observations. You can also measure your progress by setting
short-term and longer-term goals and deciding what evidence you will need
in order to show that you have achieved them.

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Success with Languages
In the text below, each gap has been assigned a question number (in brackets). For
each gap, three options are given, each identified by letter. Decide which option is
correct.
Jeannine a un métier passionnant: elle (1) ___________ journaliste pour un
hebdomadaire national. Cette profession, elle l’exerce (2) ___________ bientôt
vingt ans. . . .
Q1
Q2
A
B
C
A
B
C
est employée comme une
travaille comme
fait du
depuis
pendant
il y a
Answer Key
Check your results and read the explanations carefully. The letter enclosed in a box
indicates the correct answer. In some cases we have explained why certain answers
may not be possible or appropriate in the context of a particular sentence or phrase.
Q1
B
Travaille comme journaliste means ‘works as a journalist’.
A
Est employée comme journaliste (i.e. without the indefinite article une) would
have been correct. In French, the article is not used when stating someone’s
profession, except when an adjective is used with the noun (e.g. c’est
une
journaliste remarquable).
C
Fait du journalisme would be correct: faire du/de la introduces mention of an
activity, but cannot be used with a person (e.g. journaliste).
Q2
A
Depuis, used with a verb in the present tense, gives a meaning equivalent to
‘has been …ing for/since’ in English, so is correct here: exerce (ce métier)
depuis bientôt vingt ans means ‘has been doing (this job) for almost twenty
years’.
B
Means ‘during (a period of)’. Pendant is not used with an activity which began in
the past and is still continuing at the time of speaking/writing.
C
Il y a, the equivalent of ‘ago’, does not make sense with exerce in the present
tense (but note that il y a … que is the equivalent of depuis; therefore it would
have been correct to say Cette profession, il y a bientôt vingt ans qu’elle
l’exerce).
Figure 9.2 Example of self-marked assessment: multiple choice.
Source: the Open University, Student Marked Assessment Book, Nouvel envol, 2003, pp. 3
and 29.

205.
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191
Italian Grammar – L'imperfetto indicativo
1. Una volta l'Italia non
una squadra di rugby, ma ora sì. (avere)
2. Una volta gli abiti di Benetton
quelli di Diesel. (vendere)
3. La polizia fascista
catturavano
vendeva
bene, ma ora vanno meglio
i mafiosi con metodi duri. (catturare)
4. Quando ero piccolo non mi
gli spinaci. (piacere)
5. Mia mamma da giovane mi
(avere)
i capelli neri, ma ora sono grigi.
submit test
s
Figure 9.3 Example of computer-marked assessment: gapped text.
Source: http://www.well.ac.uk/languageExercises/Student/showTest.asp?testName=Italian+
Grammar&testID=1000129
Peer assessment
Other students may play a part in assessing you, and vice versa. Assessment
may take the form of a presentation or role-play presented to the whole
class, or a piece of written work that students edit for each other. Fellow
students may be asked to check, for example, on elements of the language
as well as on the content or structure of the work. They may also be
involved in deciding on (part of) the grade. This may seem daunting, but
it is usually a beneﬁcial learning process for both sides, as peers are likely
to be sympathetic and comment on things the original writer or speaker
has done well, but might not have been aware of otherwise. In return,
fellow students see an example, good or bad, which they can learn from.
It is possible that your course employs a mixture of the assessment types
listed above. For example, continuous assessment may consist of tutormarked assessments of your writing and speaking skills, and computermarked tests checking grammatical knowledge. This could be rounded off
by an end-of-course oral presentation, where one part of the grade is given
by fellow students and the other by an assessor.
What tasks constitute the assessment?
As part of your assessment you will usually be asked to perform different
tasks. These may be written or spoken, either in the target language or in
your mother tongue, or both. Table 9.1, together with the examples in
Figures 9.2–9.5, gives you an overview of the more common assessment

206.
your knowledge of
vocabulary or structures
in the target language
your understanding of
a reading or listening
passage in the target
language
your ability to write in
the target language
your ability to translate
from the target language
into your mother tongue
and vice versa
Test of vocabulary
or structures
Comprehension test
Pieces of writing in
the target language
Translation
Tasks with written
outcomes or answers
What is tested?
gapped text (see the example in Figure 9.3)
matching exercise (you match target language words with their mother tongue
translation)
multiple choice
at lower levels: short note, letter, email, telephone message
at more advanced levels: newspaper article, essay, project, dissertation
This is mainly used as part of degree-level study, or more advanced vocational
qualiﬁcations
᭿
᭿
After reading a text or listening to a recording you:
put in order/select from a list the topics discussed (see the example in Figure 9.4)
᭿ answer questions about them in the target language or your mother tongue (see part
of the example in Figure 9.5)
᭿ select multiple choice answers (see the example in Figure 9.2)
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
Possible test formats
Table 9.1 Assessment tasks with written and spoken outcomes or answers

207.
your ability to speak for
a speciﬁed amount of
time on a set topic
your ability to talk to
and interact with an
assessor in the target
language
your ability to interact
with fellow students in
a group situation in the
target language
your ability to provide a
spoken ad hoc translation
Monologue
Dialogue
Group conversation
Interpreting
Tasks with spoken
outcomes or answers
discussion
role-play
interview, conversation
role-play (e.g. booking a hotel room, business negotiations)
discussion
short talk/speech (by you on a prepared topic, see above) followed by questions from
the assessor
᭿
orally translating a monologue, e.g. speech in mother tongue into the target
language or vice versa
᭿ orally translating a conversation between a speaker of your mother tongue and a
speaker of the target language
This is usually only used in assessment of degree-level study or more advanced
vocational qualiﬁcations
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
You record your answer (for distance education) or speak in front of the examiner or
your class:
᭿ answerphone message (see part of example in Figure 9.5)
᭿ as if for a radio programme
᭿ short talk/speech (simpler topics, e.g. ‘you and your family’ for beginners, more
complex ones, e.g. politics or the environment, for more advanced students)

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You are having lunch in a restaurant with a colleague. You overhear bits of conversation
from the other tables, where people are commenting on the food and other things. Listen
to Track 9 on your CD and note down the order in which you hear the following topics
mentioned.
Escuche y anote.
el tráfico • la comida • el restaurante • el tiempo • planes para más tarde
Transcription of CD Track 9
Listen to these customers in the restaurant and decide what topics they are talking about.
Escuche a los clientes del restaurante. ¿De qué temas hablan?
a) – ¡Qué calor !, ¿verdad?
– ¡Uy!, sí, horrible. . . ¡Un calor insoportable!
b) – ¡Qué restaurante tan grande!
– Sí, sí, es enorme. ¡Qué barbaridad!
c) – ¡Qué tráfico!, ¿no?
– Sí, bueno, es que hay un partido de fútbol y. . .
d) – La paella está riquísima, ¿no te parece?
– Mm, sí, muy rica.
e) – Oye, ¿vamos al cine después? ¿Qué te parece?
– Sí, no es mala idea. ¿Qué ponen?
– Pues mira, una película de miedo. . . .
Answer key
The correct order is: el tiempo, el restaurante, el tráfico, la comida, planes para más tarde.
Figure 9.4 Example of assessment task: putting a list of topics in order.
Source: adapted from the Open University, Portales 5, 2003, pp. 16, 52, 119.
task types, but this list is not exhaustive. Some assessments combine a
number of tasks as part of an overall scenario or context for the assessment
(see Figure 9.5). These tasks are carried out in sequence.
Portfolio assessment
In portfolio assessment students are asked to present evidence of their
achievements in language learning. The portfolio can be summative or
formative, and it consists of a collection of tasks done at home, in class,
during a formal assessment or even elsewhere, e.g. a letter you wrote at
work. Portfolios are very different from other forms of assessment because
they allow you to select for yourself the material that will be used to assess
your performance, rather than completing a speciﬁc task set by your tutor
or an external body. The main advantage of a portfolio is that it encourages
you to examine critically what you have learned and achieved in the target
language. It gives you a much greater input into the assessment process,
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In this assignment you will read a brochure from a language school in Munich (Part A),
fill in a course enrolment form (Part B), listen to fellow students talking to the school’s
receptionists (Part C) and leave a message on the school’s answerphone (Part D).
Part A (Reading)
Read the brochure [not shown here] from one of Munich’s numerous private language
schools and answer the questions on your answer sheet.
Part B (Writing)
You have decided to enrol for a one-week intensive course for beginners at
Spracheninstitut Dehmel. Look at the enrolment form on your answer sheet and
complete the form by filling in your own details.
Part C (Listening)
While waiting in the queue to confirm your enrolment at Spracheninstitut Dehmel, you
hear other students enrolling for language courses talking to the school’s receptionists.
Listen to your Assessment Cassette and answer the questions on your answer sheet.
Part D (Speaking)
Now leave a message on the answerphone of Spracheninstitut Dehmel announcing
your arrival in Munich. You should include the information listed below. Record your
message in German on a blank Speaking Assignment Cassette. It should last no less
than 30 seconds and no more than a minute.
In your message, make sure you say:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
hello;
your name;
the country you are from;
that you are coming to Munich tomorrow;
that you will stay at the Park Hotel Schwabing;
the telephone number at the Park Hotel Schwabing is 089 36 00 10;
good-bye.
Figure 9.5 Example of a series of assessment tasks as part of an overall scenario.
Source: abridged from the Open University, Assessment Book 1, 2003–4, Rundblick, 2003,
pp. 10–11.
about what you will select for assessment. Portfolios can also be used as
a way of recording your progress (see Chapter 4, ‘Personal development
planning’).
If your course uses portfolio assessment, there will be guidelines that
specify what kinds of material and how many examples you should present
in your portfolio. These usually include language work, independent learning activities (such as learning logs or diaries), self-assessment and reﬂective
activities, e.g. evidence of reﬂection on differences and similarities between
cultures, or evidence of critical understanding of your own and other
cultures.

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• Consider what you know about the assessment on your course:
– When will you be assessed?
– Who will assess you?
– What tasks constitute the assessment?
• Ask your tutor or course organizer as soon as possible if you are
not sure about any of these points.
DOING AN ASSIGNMENT
The word assignment usually describes a particular task or connected group
of tasks which you have to prepare for your continuous assessment.
Preparing an assignment
Start by reading the task carefully, so you understand clearly what is
required. It is very important that you do exactly this, i.e. not too little, or
too much, or the wrong thing. If you are unsure at any point about what
you have to do, seek advice either from your tutor or a fellow student. Leave
yourself plenty of time to do this, especially for the ﬁrst assignment, when
you are still becoming familiar with the course and its requirements.
Looking at the task, consider what exactly is required:
• Content Which items of information do you have to include?
• Language What vocabulary and structures do you need for the topic as
it is set out? Is it a formal or an informal context? Is it a speaking or a
writing task? Sometimes grammar points or structures may be asked for
explicitly, e.g. a certain tense. If nothing speciﬁc is prescribed you can
assume that a good spread of the different vocabulary and structures
covered by the course will be expected.
• Intercultural skills What critical understanding and abilities do you
need to demonstrate with respect to the language and cultures you are
studying? You may be required to show, for instance, interest and
appreciation of differences between cultures, or willingness to understand and engage with other views of the world.
• Source materials Are you asked to refer to certain sources as a basis for
your writing or speaking, e.g. a text or an audio recording provided as
part of the task, a particular reference book, or a website?
• Length Is there a prescribed length, i.e. a particular word limit for a
written task or a speciﬁed time limit for a spoken task? Make sure you
keep to it, because there could be penalties.
• Format You may be required to produce your assignment with a certain
layout, e.g. word-processed with a margin on one side to allow for tutor

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comments. You may also receive advice on writing the script of the
language you are learning (e.g. Cyrillic or Arabic) or characters that
only occur in the foreign language (e.g. ü, ß, ê, ñ, å). On some courses
the presentation of your assignment may be graded as well as the
language and content.
It is also important to be aware of the following points. Depending on
your course, some of this information may not be found in the task itself,
but in the accompanying course documentation.
• Assessment criteria Most language courses provide you with the assessment criteria for your assignments (see the example in Figure 9.6).
These specify what is assessed, for example, language only, or also
Marks for role-play performances are awarded positively on a scale of 1–10 using the
following assessment grid. The mark awarded reflects the extent to which the task
as a whole has been successfully communicated and completed. To determine if a
candidate should gain the upper or lower number of marks in the box which best
describes the performance, it is important to refer to the boxes above and below. If the
candidate’s performance borders more on the performance of the box below than the
box above, then the lower mark is allocated. On certain occasions, a candidate
performance may require a ‘best fit’ mark.
Role-play A
Communication and content
9–10
Conveys all information required
Interacts extremely well
No prompting necessary
7–8
Conveys most information required
(At least three prescribed tasks)
Little or no prompting necessary
5–6
Conveys half the required information
(At least two prescribed tasks)
Little prompting necessary
3–4
Conveys less than half the required information
(At least one prescribed task)
Some prompting necessary
1–2
One prescribed task completed satisfactorily
Extremely hesitant, reliant on prompting
0
No effective communication
Figure 9.6 Example of assessment criteria for a spoken task.
Source: speciﬁcation, Edexcel GCSE in Urdu, issue 1, January 2001, p. 25,
http://www.edexcel.org.uk/VirtualContent/18108.pdf

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•
•
•
•
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content, presentation and awareness of social and cultural customs
(often called Intercultural Competence), and what standard you have
to reach in order to receive a certain grade. Ask your tutor if you are
unsure what is being assessed or what is expected of you.
Pass mark What is the minimum grade you need to pass an assignment?
Being aware of this can often help to set your mind at rest. Do you have
to pass all assignments, or only a certain number, in order to pass the
course?
Weighting How much do individual assignments contribute to the
overall grade of the course? Are oral and written assignments equally
important? Do you have to pass all of them, or is it enough for your
average grade to be above a certain level?
Submitting the work How do you have to submit your assignment? If
you are attending a regular class this may be easy for you, because you
just take the assignment along in the speciﬁed week. However, what
should you do if you cannot attend in that week? Can you take it to
your tutor’s ofﬁce, or send it to your tutor or course organizer? For other
courses you may be expected to take it to an office or send it to a
particular address. Make sure you know how to do this (precise address,
name, proof of posting). If you clarify the necessary procedures you can
avoid misunderstandings, such as your tutor thinking you have
submitted late, when in fact your assignment was on time, but went to
the wrong person.
Late submission/extension How strict are the deadlines for individual
assignments? Is it possible to ask for more time to ﬁnish an assignment?
If so, what do you have to do to be granted this? Please note that some
institutions have a policy of deducting marks for late submission.
Resubmission Do you only have one go at each assignment, or is there
a chance to revise it and resubmit?
Additional requirements What provision is there to take care of any
additional requirements you may have due to your personal situation,
e.g. if you are hearing-impaired and have difﬁculty listening to a CD,
or if you have difﬁculty writing? Teaching institutions have a duty to
support learners with additional requirements and are happy to help.
Get in touch with your course organizer or tutor to discuss such issues
as early as possible in your course.
• Read all the assessment-related documentation for your course as
soon as it is available to get an overview of the number and type
of assignments, as well as related rules and regulations.
• Always ask for clariﬁcation from your tutor or course organizer if
you are unsure about anything in relation to assessment.

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Task 9.2 Assessment rules and regulations for your
course
Look at your course documentation and check these details about the way your
learning is assessed:
1 what is assessed – content, language, intercultural awareness, presentation?
2 resources and materials required or allowed;
3 word length or time limits;
4 format required;
5 pass mark;
6 weighting of individual parts of an assignment;
7 procedures for submission;
8 procedures for obtaining an extension;
9 possibility of resubmission;
10 arrangements for meeting additional requirements.
Comment
If you cannot ﬁnd the information for points 1–4 and 7, you should deﬁnitely ask
your tutor before you start on your ﬁrst/next assignment. The same applies to
point 10 if you have additional requirements. The remainder are less urgent and
you should decide whether you want to ﬁnd out more about them depending
on your personal circumstances.
Completing your assignment
The following advice will help you to produce a good written or spoken
assignment.
• Get together all the information you need Before you start preparing
for a written or spoken assignment, gather all the information you need.
For example, in addition to the task description, you may have vocabulary lists for a particular topic area or source texts to refer to (see
Chapter 6).
• Get down to it It is often hard to get started. This may be because you
feel insufficiently prepared. There are always more texts you could
read or points in the textbook you could go over, and you could go
on preparing forever. Usually it is a matter of forcing yourself to start
and seeing how you get on. If you then get to a particular point where
you feel you need more information, you can check it speciﬁcally, e.g.
in your textbook or dictionary.

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• Check content and language Once you have prepared your assignment,
check carefully that the content is relevant and the language is accurate. If you already have feedback from your tutor on previous work,
refer to it (see the following section, ‘Getting your assignment back’).
• Practise a spoken task If you are giving a talk, have one or two practice
runs before the event. If you are preparing for a dialogue or discussion,
you might like to practise it with a fellow student or talk to yourself
about the topics required.
• Use your own words and acknowledge sources In a language assignment
naturally you want your contribution to sound as good as possible.
By all means use some words or expressions from your course or assessment materials or other sources, but make sure you do not copy large
chunks from them. It is important that you show your own ability to
use the language, rather than someone else’s, as explained in Chapter
6, ‘Incorporating language from other sources into your speech or writing’. Too much copying could be considered as plagiarism or cheating,
which is a serious matter subject to severe penalties.
If you are working at a higher academic level (for example, preparing
a report or an essay) you will probably be required to draw on a variety
of sources. In these cases make sure you reference both direct and
indirect quotations appropriately. If this is required, you will be given
guidance on the format to use.
• Consider asking for more time if you really need it If extensions to
deadlines are permitted, they are intended to help you out in an
emergency. There is no need to feel embarrassed to ask for one if you
are experiencing difﬁculties. However, make use of them only if you
really need to.
• Always try to hand in SOMETHING It is usually better to hand in
something to your tutor than not to submit anything. Often it will be
sufﬁcient to pass, even if the mark is lower than you would have liked.
Even if you should fail, you will beneﬁt from the feedback you receive.
In some courses it may be possible to drop one of several assignments;
others require you to complete them all, and non-submission could
cause problems for continuing the course. Always seek advice from your
tutor or course organizer about the implications, and whether there are
any other options.
• Review your own goals Spend some time on thinking about how you
feel the work on the assignment went for you. Which parts did you feel
went well or badly, which were easy or difﬁcult? How did work for the
assignment contribute to the achievement of your language learning
goals? It is often useful if you communicate these thoughts to your tutor
before they mark an assignment, as they can respond in their feedback
(see Chapter 4).

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This may well seem like a very long list to consider. These issues are likely
to take quite a lot of time to sort out for the ﬁrst assignment. However,
many of them will become second nature to you once you have been
studying your particular course for a while.
GETTING YOUR ASSIGNMENT BACK
Making the most of marked assignments
Regardless of the grade it receives, every marked assignment provides
valuable opportunities for further learning, so you should review each one
carefully as soon as possible after it is returned to you. Do not spend too
much time on this, 20 to 30 minutes should be sufﬁcient. For suggestions
on how to do this see the section ‘How to work with corrected assignments’.
Keep the results of your review for future reference.
In addition to the grade, feedback on language assignments provides
detailed comments on speciﬁc points, plus more general observations. It
usually covers three aspects of your work:
• your control over the target language (verb endings, adjective agreements, pronunciation of vowels, and so on);
• your ability to express your ideas coherently and succinctly;
• the extent to which you have completed the task.
Together, these give you a rounded picture of your performance, as well as
useful pointers for the future.
Corrections and what they can tell you
Chapter 4 suggests ways to monitor your progress and to assess your
strengths and weaknesses in relation to the speciﬁc tasks, skills or knowledge needed to complete a forthcoming assignment. The following sections
consider how you can adapt this approach to maximize your learning from
marked assignments.
Tutors give feedback on your use of the target language in different ways.
Some write out corrections in full, but others may prefer to use a marking
code (a series of symbols or abbreviations used to identify the most common
problems), for example: VT (Verb tense error), A (Article error) or [ ]
(Omit unnecessary word/phrase). Your tutor may also comment on other
aspects of your work using a marking code, for example: Rel (Relevance
of content), or Str (Structure of content). Keep any explanatory notes from
your tutor to hand as you check through your assignments.

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On some courses you may be able to submit assignments electronically.
Instead of writing corrections on your script, tutors make electronic
annotations. Typically, this involves the use of tools in word processors
(e.g. the comment and tracking facilities available in Word). If these tools
are needed, your tutor or course documentation will explain how to use
them.
Oral assignments may be submitted on audio tape or, perhaps, emailed
as sound file attachments. In addition to written feedback, tutors may
provide recorded comments (e.g. on pronunciation or intonation). You
may be invited to repeat words or phrases that have caused you difﬁculties.
Although this may seem a little strange or embarrassing at ﬁrst, it is well
worth the effort to act on such highly focused, individualized feedback that
will help you overcome your own speciﬁc problems.
Most important of all, remember that tutors do not only look for what
is wrong with your work: they are also interested in what you have done
well, and will give praise where it is due. Ticks and encouraging comments
are important indicators of your progress, so it is a good idea to take careful
note of them and think about how you can reuse the things you have
learned and the skills you have acquired in future assignments.
How to work with corrected assignments
Whatever the form of the corrections, they can help you to identify and
eliminate recurrent language mistakes. A corrected assignment can also
give you advice and guidance on non-linguistic aspects of your work, e.g.
unclear arguments or incorrect referencing. For written assignments, as a
ﬁrst step, go through and try to group corrections of the same type in lists
under headings such as:
•
•
•
•
•
•
verbs
adjectives
pronouns
prepositions
spelling
choice of vocabulary
or any other categories related to target language use or to the content or
structure of your assignment.
You can do the same for oral assignments. Using your tutor’s taped
or written comments, add categories such as pronunciation, intonation,
etc. to your lists, as appropriate. Note all the favourable comments,
too, including the points your tutor has simply ticked. Remember that it
is important to build on your successes as well as learning from your
mistakes. Make a note of any alternative words or expressions suggested by
your tutor.

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More advanced students may want to subdivide broad categories of
corrections, e.g.
• Verbs
– form
– tense
– subject–verb agreement, etc.
The categories you identify will vary according to speciﬁc features of your
target language, for instance, case (German), personal a (Spanish), or tone
(Mandarin). Keep these categories and lists of corrections to hand when
you prepare for your next assignment as a reminder of things to watch out
for. Tasks 9.3 and 9.4 help you to put these suggestions into practice.
Producing multiple lists in this way may seem like a chore, but it is a
good way of identifying gaps in your knowledge, or skills that need to be
developed, helping you to learn more effectively. In the longer term,
categorizing your tutor’s corrections and comments can help you to chart
your progress and adopt a more strategic approach. Why waste time working on things you can already do well when it makes much more sense
to concentrate on things you do not know or have not yet assimilated?
Categorizing things you did well, mistakes and corrections can help you to
identify your strengths and weaknesses and make a realistic assessment of
your progress. Lastly, as you eliminate the types of mistake corrected by
your tutor, you can cross them off the lists, and this can be a great boost to
your morale!
Task 9.3 Categorizing comments and corrections
Take a previously marked assignment and categorize the favourable comments
and corrections made by your tutor, as described in the text. Note the number
in each category. Now list them in order, putting the category with the greatest
number ﬁrst.
Comment
Does anything surprise you about the result? Keep this list to hand for the next
task.
Using feedback to become a better language learner
Tutors may not necessarily provide full corrections for all mistakes, but
simply underline them, or indicate the sentence or paragraph in which
they occur. This does not mean that tutors are not doing their job properly,
but is simply recognition that you, as a learner, have a role to play in the

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correction process too. Making you look for certain mistakes and then
rectify them does mean more work and more responsibility for you, but at
the same time it gives you a chance to think through the rules again and
learn them.
Apart from correcting individual mistakes, tutors may make more
extensive comments on your script dealing with recurring problems, or
points that do not lend themselves to brief corrections. They may also provide a general commentary, usually on the cover sheet of the assignment.
In the most helpful commentaries, tutors explain how they arrived at the
grade they awarded, relating your performance to the assessment criteria
(see the example in Figure 9.6). Tutor commentaries give you an overview
of your progress in your language studies. They can include general advice,
such as:
• clarification of any elements of the task, instructions or assessment
material that you may have misinterpreted or misunderstood;
• advice on how to present and structure your answer more effectively;
• suggestions for further practice or references to sources of help (e.g.
sections of the coursebooks, grammars, etc.);
• general tips about developing your language skills.
Remember, however, that tutors are often working to tight deadlines,
so they do not always have time to comment on every aspect of your work
in great detail. You may occasionally ﬁnd their comments unclear, or that
you need specific examples to help you grasp a more general point. In
such cases, do not hesitate to get in touch. Tutors would much rather spend
time helping students to overcome difﬁculties than leave them struggling
unaided.
Sometimes your tutor will ask you to make contact to discuss your
work. Students are sometimes too embarrassed to do so, but if you receive
such an invitation, do take it up, as it will be a golden opportunity for you
to obtain personal advice and guidance.
• When you receive marked assignments, categorize the corrections
made by your tutor, grouping them under headings (e.g. verbs,
adjectives, etc.). Listen to any comments on oral assignments, and
do the same.
• Note all favourable comments too, and think about how you can
reuse the things you have done well in future assignments.
• Use these lists to identify your strengths and weaknesses.
• Summarize your tutor’s general comments, paying particular
attention to:

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–
–
–
–
205
explanations of how the grade was arrived at;
clariﬁcation of the instructions or other aspects of the task;
advice on presenting and structuring your answer;
suggestions on further practice and sources of help;
study tips.
• Compare specific comments and corrections with your tutor’s
general commentary, noting items requiring attention before you
start your next assignment.
• Give yourself credit for the progress you have made, take the
opportunity to check on whether you have achieved your goals
and set new ones (see Chapter 4).
• Contact your tutor if invited to do so, or if you have any queries.
Task 9.4 Drawing up an action plan
Draw up an action plan for the assignment you worked on in Task 9.3. Look
carefully at your tutor’s remarks on the script itself and in any general written
or recorded commentary. Summarize the points made, both positive and
negative, together with any suggestions for revision. Look again at the lists you
drew up in Task 9.3 as well. Use all of this information to produce a plan of
things to do before submitting the next assignment. You may ﬁnd it helpful to
group them under these headings:
᭿
Completing the task (complying with instructions, presentation and structure
of work).
᭿ Improving my language.
Comment
Remember that the aim is to establish priorities, so concentrate on a few
essential points (two or three per heading at the most, e.g. the largest categories
identiﬁed in Task 9.3) to make your action plan focused and its aims achievable.
If you are unsure about anything, discuss it with your tutor.
Another effective review technique is to redo the assignment, taking
all the tutor’s feedback into consideration and targeting areas where there
is room for improvement. If possible, exchange revised assignments
with another student and give each other feedback. Redoing the assignment provides opportunities for active learning and for measuring your
progress.

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Assignments, feedback and corrections all have the potential to help
you to learn, but you have to unlock it by asking the right questions,
concentrating not so much on What did I get wrong?, but on How can I use
my strengths and weaknesses to learn more efﬁciently and effectively? Learning
from assessments should be a key part of your short-term action plan as
well as a step towards your longer-term goals (see Chapter 4, ‘Assessing
your strengths and weaknesses: setting goals’).
MAINTAINING A POSITIVE ATTITUDE:
COPING WITH SETBACKS
Most people experience highs and lows during their studies. Chapter 3,
‘Maintaining your confidence’, suggests ways of managing low points.
Maintaining a positive attitude in the face of setbacks is important for your
progress and your morale at all times, especially when approaching assignments and exams.
You may be ﬁnding a particular aspect of your course hard to grasp or
you may be experiencing difﬁculties in areas unrelated to your studies. Even
a relatively minor family or work issue may seem more acute at these times.
Recognizing that these are common experiences and tackling them as early
as possible, will help you to maintain your momentum.
Task 9.5 What works for me
Take some time to think about concerns you may have about an assignment,
and possible solutions. (Use the examples to help you do this.)
Concerns
Solutions
᭿
Too long spent on part of
an assignment.
᭿ Not able to ﬁnish the
assignment in time.
᭿ Time myself.
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿ Discuss reasons with my tutor.
Comment
You may have noted concerns in some of these areas:
᭿
time pressure: not having covered all the material; spending too long on
part of the assignment; not being able to ﬁnish in time;

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᭿
anxiety or panic: not quite understanding the task; concern about not having
the skill or knowledge required; handing in something you are not totally
satisﬁed with;
᭿ feelings of disappointment, frustration or anger: a lower mark than expected;
a mark that doesn’t seem to reﬂect the effort you have made.
Some practical solutions are given in the next section. Whatever your concerns,
devote some time to working out the best solution. Then put it into practice and
stick to it.
Keeping positive: some solutions
If you are facing real time pressure, try to assess honestly how this has
arisen, so that you can take the appropriate action. See also Chapter 2,
‘Managing your time’. The same strategies can be applied to assessment
tasks. Ask yourself how you could avoid falling behind in the future.
Be honest with yourself. Are you under time pressure primarily because
you are a perfectionist? If so, be tough on yourself. If you are tackling an
assignment, give yourself a deadline for starting (even if you feel you are
not quite ready), as well as for ﬁnishing. In future you could time yourself
when doing course activities; this may help you when you come to the next
assignment.
If, on the other hand, your lack of time is due to unforeseen circumstances, then it is reasonable to get in touch with your tutor or course
organizer. You may be able to negotiate more time or drop an assignment
(see the advice on extensions and non-submission in ‘Completing your
assignment’). Check the rules which apply on your course. Don’t be
tempted to ask for extra time to avoid forcing yourself to get started.
Remember that any delay increases the danger of falling behind with
subsequent work.
If your study plan has not quite worked out and you feel there is just too
much material to get through in the time available, review and select what
is most relevant for this assignment. Be pragmatic and focus on what is
needed now. You can go back to other material later by allowing time for
it in a revised study plan.
If you are feeling anxiety or panic about how well you can do, it is useful
to take stock of the strengths you already have. Focusing on your strengths
will help you feel better about your achievements and maintain a positive
attitude in tackling your assignments. Think about what you can now do
that you couldn’t do before (see Figure 9.7).
Having managed to complete the assignment, the ﬁrst thing you will
probably do when you get it back is look at the mark or grade. If it is what
you expected, or even higher, you will feel elated and ready to carry on

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I set myself some goals and said: Right, I’ll be
able to listen to a paragraph at a time, and then
summarize it in Spanish by the end of June: by the
end of August I could listen to two paragraphs at
a time and I made a note of that in my diary . . .
if you’ve got this little diary you can say:
Well, hang on a minute, I may be struggling with
this text, but when I started back in February,
I couldn’t even do that one, but now I can!
Figure 9.7 A student view: keeping positive.
with renewed energy and increased motivation. If it is lower, you may feel
disappointment, or even anger or frustration if you feel your tutor has
misunderstood or misjudged your work. Talk to your tutor if you do not
understand what is wrong. No matter how you feel, it is always worth
considering the feedback carefully, as suggested above, and making an effort
to learn as much as you can from it. You might like to do this straight away,
or wait a while until you can view it dispassionately.
Sometimes it is helpful to talk with others. Chapter 10 considers how
to make the most of support from others, but in relation to assignments in
particular, you could talk to:
• other students: you may well discover that you are not the only one
who found part of an assignment difﬁcult. It may be a relief to realize
that you are not alone, but more importantly, through discussion you
can also pick up new tips and approaches;
• friends or to your family: they may, for example, help you make more
time available for your studies;
• your tutor or a language adviser (see Chapter 10) if one is available:
this may help you arrive at a viable solution. Try to come out of the
meeting with a realistic plan for how to progress (see Figure 9.8).
. . . I had a really good tutor last
year. Instead of saying: ‘I don’t
know how to do this, I can’t do
Spanish’; I could say: ‘Look,
I’m ever so sorry, but can you
give me some tips, because I
am struggling with X’; and I
found that my tutor was
absolutely brilliant at giving
me help. . . .
Figure 9.8 A student view: talking about a problem.

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Whatever you choose to do, don’t keep the problem to yourself. Learning
is a process, and assessment is part of it. Share the good times. Successfully
completing an assignment is very motivating, but recognize that setbacks
may occur at some stage. You need to ﬁnd out what solutions work best for
you and be prepared to give them a go. It is all part of becoming an effective
learner.
• Assess time pressures honestly to ﬁnd the best solution for you.
• Look at what you can already do; don’t give in to negative selftalk.
• Share your good experiences and your concerns. Talk to others
(students, family or friends, tutor).
EXAMINATIONS: HOW CAN I MAKE SURE I DO MY BEST
IN AN EXAM?
What makes an exam different from assignments?
For assignments you have probably been working without time restrictions,
although you may have been advised how long to spend on them. In a
language exam you will be working within time limits. If you have practised
doing this beforehand you will feel under less pressure in the exam itself.
For your assignments you can normally use as many reference materials
as you like; for an exam there will be regulations as to what you can take
into the examination room. Check in advance what types of dictionary,
grammar book or textbook are allowed, if any. In an exam you may need
to refer to speciﬁc material (for example a reading passage, a listening text
or a picture) that you have either studied beforehand or are given on the
spot. In contrast to assignments that you do during the rest of the year, you
are likely to receive no feedback on your exam or ﬁnal assessment.
Work throughout the year
The nature of language learning makes regular work throughout the year
of paramount importance. A language is less of an ‘information’ subject
than many others. It is more about developing your listening, speaking,
reading and writing skills, and using them in context, by giving a presentation in the language, for example. You develop language awareness and
improve your use of the language, building on vocabulary and grammar
related to the topics studied in your course. You transfer the language you
learn from one situation to another. You also develop cultural and intercultural awareness and understanding. These skills are built up gradually

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through regular practice of the language; they cannot be acquired through
last minute cramming.
However, revision is important!
Revision
Task 9.6 Effective exam preparation
Think about the following question and note down your responses:
What do I need to consider when planning my revision in order to prepare
effectively for my exam?
Comment
You may have considered the following:
᭿
᭿
᭿
timing (a revision schedule);
content of revision (what to revise and how to revise it);
exam technique (self-testing and trial run of exam-type tasks).
Revision schedule
When planning your revision schedule, allow enough time before the exam
to be able to revise what you identify as crucial, taking into account any
other commitments. Do not leave revision to the last few days in case there
are unanticipated demands on your time. Managing your time effectively
will also help you to feel more relaxed.
What and how to revise
Make sure you know what will be examined, and how. Then start by
concentrating on these speciﬁc skills and topic areas.
Task Depending on your language level and the nature of the exam, you
will need to prepare for different types of tasks (see Table 9.1).
Strategies By now you will have built up a set of strategies for approaching
different reading, listening, speaking and writing tasks and you should
know what works best for you. You will have noted what you found easy
and what worked for you, and what you found difﬁcult and how you
dealt with that. Go through potential problem areas again and discuss
them with your tutor, a language adviser or fellow students.
Vocabulary Revise speciﬁc vocabulary or expressions for the type of task
you are expecting, for example, essay writing. Work on vocabulary
related to topics on your course; use mind maps, or any other topicrelated revision system that you ﬁnd helpful. Test yourself.

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Grammar Make a list of points to be checked during a written exam, based
on a review of your previous performance throughout the course. Work
on those points you are still having problems with.
Topics Some language exams also assess factual knowledge. Check
whether this is the case and revise accordingly. Even if it is not assessed
you need to be sufﬁciently conversant with the topics in your course to
be at ease with new situations or perspectives on these topics presented
in an exam.
Essays If you have to write essays make sure you recognize, understand
and know how to respond to the various process words like analyse,
compare and contrast, illustrate, etc. in your target language. Practise
drafting plans before you write or speak (see Chapter 6, ‘Preparing what
you want to say or write’, and ‘Speaking and writing from notes’).
Presentation If you have to give a timed presentation, make sure you know
how much you can say at your normal speed within a given time.
Practise adjusting your main points to the time available.
Handouts If you have to use speciﬁc material made available beforehand
for either a written or an oral exam, make sure that you have done your
preparation thoroughly.
Trial run
In your preparation, include a trial run of the type of tasks required for the
exam, either with a fellow student or with another speaker of the target
language. This could include working through a specimen paper or a past
paper if available. Working through a written paper will give you the chance
to discuss content, approach and linguistic features. A trial run of an oral
will give you a feel for the interaction, what works, and why. In both cases
it will give you a sense of the timing. Practise under exam conditions so
that you can judge better where any possible problems may lie.
Checklist for monitoring your performance
• Did I understand clearly what the task entailed, what I needed to do?
• Did I spend too long deciding what to write/say?
• Did I write/say a lot about some points and nothing/not enough about
some others?
• Was this because of lack of time . . .
• . . . or because I did not have enough to say?
• Did I not have enough time to ﬁnish? Why?
The person with whom you are doing the trial run could also use this
checklist; you could then discuss and compare ideas together. This will
help you identify what you do well, and any areas where you may need
further practice and revision, perhaps returning to other relevant sections
of this book.

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On the day
On the day, all this practice and tactical planning will help you to deal
much more easily and comfortably with the exam. You will be in a better
position to:
• judge your strengths and weaknesses and choose the task(s) most suited
to you, if there is a choice;
• manage the time available for the task(s);
• check automatically for possible pitfalls;
• interact comfortably and contribute in a focused way in orals.
Also don’t overlook these general points which apply to any exam:
• Put together in advance any resources you are allowed to take into the
exam, e.g. dictionary, pen, your examination number and proof of
identity if required.
• If you have any special requirements do make sure that you have
discussed them well in advance of your exam, so that the necessary
arrangements are in place for the day.
• Check the time and place of the exam.
• If you are travelling by public transport make sure you have got the right
timetable and allow enough time to get to the examination centre in
plenty of time.
• If you are travelling by car make sure you know in advance how long
it will take you and allow for any eventualities. Find out about parking
facilities.
• Try to keep calm under pressure – try some breathing exercises before
going into the exam, and during the exam if necessary.
You are now set for the day. Once you are there, sit comfortably and do
your best.
Summary of key points
• Find out what sort of accreditation your course offers and ask your
tutor for advice if you are unsure.
• Find out when you will be assessed, who will assess you and what
tasks the assessment will consist of.
• When doing an assignment make sure you have all the information you need; complete it following the guidelines; check it
thoroughly for content and language and hand it in on time.

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• When you get your marked assignment back read your tutor’s
comments carefully and draw up an action plan.
• Maintain a positive attitude; share good experiences and any
concerns.
• Prepare systematically and in good time for an exam.

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10
Making the most of support
Annie Eardley and Cecilia Garrido
Whether you are learning independently or attending a language class,
there are plenty of sources of support you can draw on. Earlier chapters
have highlighted the importance of friends and family, fellow students,
work colleagues and interaction with other speakers of your target language
in particular. This chapter examines the types of support you can expect
from your tutor or from a language adviser, if you are studying through an
educational institution, before considering in more detail how you can
make the most of these other sources of support. It concludes by looking
at your ultimate goal: putting your newly acquired language skills into
practice.
MAKING THE MOST OF SUPPORT FROM YOUR TUTOR OR
LANGUAGE ADVISER
The role of tutors and language advisers
Tutors provide tuition and academic support for learners enrolled on
courses in traditional classroom settings or in distance education. They
have overall responsibility for monitoring your progress in the target
language. Note that the best tutor is not simply a ﬂuent target language
speaker. Most important is the tutor’s ability to explain concepts clearly
and devise activities which will help you practise and consolidate what you
have learned.
Language advisers usually provide support in self-access or ‘drop-in’
centres or language centres. Their role is to complement the work of tutors
by helping you to locate appropriate resources in these centres and to give
you advice on how to study effectively.

229.
Making the most of support
Giving advice on
study skills and
selecting priorities
Providing
more practice
Providing oral practice
Suggesting where
to access ways to
further practice
Giving progress
checks
Explaining clearly what is
good and what is not
about your performance
Explaining things you aren’t sure
about
Answering questions
Giving advice on
using resources
Helping you catch up
if you get behind
Telling you more about
customs/cultural practices
215
Giving specific practical
advice on how to improve
Providing information about
sessions missed
Alerting you to films, books and other
opportunities to use/hear the language
Figure 10.1 The role of tutors and language advisers.
Task 10.1 Support from a language adviser or your tutor
Look at the types of support shown in Figure 10.1.
Which could be provided by a language adviser?
Comment:
The shaded items would normally be where a language adviser could offer help.
In institutions where there is no self-access or language centre, these roles are
also fulﬁlled by the tutor.
Seeking and using support
Figure 10.1 shows the various types of support your tutor or language adviser
can provide. Although, in some cases, you could get this support from other
people, in the following situations the most appropriate person to contact
is your tutor:
• When you have questions about your course or need explanations and
examples for speciﬁc language points, or advice about assignments There
may be times when you ﬁnd the explanation of a new language point
difficult to follow or you are uncertain how to tackle a particular
assignment. It is much better to seek advice straight away if you have
a problem. You are likely to make more progress and obtain better grades
in your assessed work if you understand these points fully and know
exactly what is expected of you.

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Before you contact your tutor, work out exactly what you need to
know or would like to have explained. It may help to write out your
questions if you are making contact by phone. Check that you have
understood your tutor’s explanations by repeating them in your own
words, e.g. Can I just check that? The adjective ending changes when. . . .
Another way of checking is to create a few examples of your own in the
target language and ask your tutor how they sound or if they are written
correctly. You may want to do this in a subsequent call or an email. Your
tutor also knows your course materials well and may suggest you repeat
certain activities or revise certain sections. Note the explanations and
advice carefully and put them into practice as soon as you can afterwards.
• When you feel that you are not progressing fast enough Do not expect to
make progress at the same pace throughout your course. Sometimes
learners feel they have reached a plateau and that they are not covering
much new ground or improving their performance. This can be frustrating and demotivating. Contact your tutor and explain how you feel.
Your tutor can give you clear, objective advice on what you are capable
of and may suggest concrete ways in which you can measure the progress
you have made (such as suggestions in Chapter 4, ‘Monitoring your
progress’ and Chapter 9, ‘Making the most of marked assignments’).
Talking to your tutor and sharing his/her enthusiasm for the target
language and culture can re-inspire you and revive your motivation to
continue.
• When you need to clarify feedback on your performance in assessments
Chapter 9 explains how to make the most of feedback on assessed work
and advises you to contact your tutor if you have any questions. As with
other questions, try to be as clear as possible. Your tutor will not
necessarily remember the detail of your work. It will help if you provide
the context or a copy either by email/post or when you meet. Check
your understanding of any explanations as suggested above and note
them for future reference. Use the information in the same way as the
rest of your tutor’s feedback (as suggested in Chapter 9, ‘Making the
most of marked assignments’).
In the following situations it is appropriate to contact a language adviser
if available, or your tutor.
• When you need further language practice Before you look for additional
practice, make sure you get the most out of any classes by being as active
and involved as possible, even if some activities are unfamiliar to you
at ﬁrst. (See Chapter 3, ‘Learning with others in a language classroom’,
for some examples of typical language class activities.) Try to be openminded and not to dismiss any outright. If you do not understand their
aims, ask. Make every effort to attend, even if the classes are optional

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for your course. If you still feel you need additional practice or if
attending language classes is a problem, ask your tutor or a language
adviser to suggest other sources of practice activities or an alternative
to classes. Chapter 7 contains suggestions for further practice using reallife target language resources and Chapter 8 explains how to access
electronic resources. Language advisers can usually put you in touch
with speakers of the target language through the TANDEM network
(see ‘Making the most of support from other speakers of the language’.)
• When you want to use the self-access facilities provided by your educational
establishment Your institution may have self-access or ‘drop-in’ facilities
where you can work on speciﬁc skills. Resources usually include reading
and audio material with accompanying notes, exercises and answer
keys; access to target language TV channels by satellite or recorded
programmes; selected CALL programmes (see Chapter 8) for grammar
or writing practice. In order to make the most of support, make sure you
think through the sort of practice you need. You may do this by assessing
your strengths and weaknesses as suggested in Chapter 4, as well as by
reviewing your performance in assignments (Chapter 9). The language
adviser will then be able to suggest appropriate material and the sort of
activities that would be most helpful to enable you to achieve your
goals.
Contacting your tutor
Keep your tutor’s contact details to hand, i.e. email addresses, telephone
numbers and contact times. It is also a good idea to check the best way to
make contact. Tutors will be only too happy to offer help when they are
free to respond. Remember, however, that they have many students and
cannot be expected to provide extensive one-to-one language practice.
Chapters 1 and 2 encourage you to define your long- and short-term
language learning objectives. Make contact with your tutor early in your
course to talk through your objectives and expectations. In return, your
tutor will explain what help you can expect, and offer advice as appropriate.
Establishing a good relationship makes it easier to seek help when you need
it and ensure that you take advantage of support. Remember, however, that
although your tutor is there to guide you, it is you who do the learning.
MAKING THE MOST OF SUPPORT FROM YOUR FELLOW
STUDENTS
The major beneﬁt of attending language classes is that they will give you
the opportunity to meet fellow students and feel part of a learning
community, which can provide mutual help and support.

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Task 10.2 Support from other students
Jot down ﬁve ways in which your fellow students can help you in your language
learning.
Comment
It is a popular misconception among many language learners that they cannot
learn from other learners, but there are many advantages in establishing close
links with your fellow students. You may have thought of the following:
᭿
᭿
᭿
practising the language together;
sharing study tips, e.g. for remembering vocabulary;
sharing useful information, e.g. helpful websites or target language films
showing locally;
᭿ pooling resources or effort, e.g. joint purchase of magazines or sharing the
reading of course material and explaining it to each other;
᭿ mutual encouragement.
Some of these ideas are discussed in more detail in this chapter.
Practising your oral skills
Practising your oral skills with other students can provide you with instant
feedback on your performance and give you informal indications of your
progress. One frequent concern is that this can reinforce bad habits and
mistakes and may generate new ones. In fact it can help you in many ways.
If other students are less proﬁcient or conﬁdent than yourself, you may need
to rephrase what you are saying in order to be understood. This is a useful
skill. Many language learners tend to reuse familiar expressions and
structures making little attempt to extend their range. Having to explain
something to someone who has not understood you can extend your range
as well as helping to clarify it in your own mind.
Working with students who appear to be more able than you also
has advantages. It can give you a dry run in situations similar to those you
will encounter when you interact with ﬂuent speakers of the language. This
can make you more confident in your ability to cope. Working with
students who are at a similar level to you can also bring benefits. Each
learner has different strengths and weaknesses so you will always ﬁnd that
you can learn from others.
Remember that other students may appear more proﬁcient, but this may
reﬂect higher levels of conﬁdence rather than real levels of competence in
the language. It is natural to make mistakes when learning a language.
Furthermore, it is neither practical, nor desirable to expect every single

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219
mistake you make to be corrected. This can make you self-conscious and
less ﬂuent. Mistakes are not a problem in many real-life situations, as long
as they do not impede communication. In many cases you will realize you
have made a mistake and self-correct it, just as you would in your first
language.
Mutual support and encouragement
Working with your fellow students will give you the opportunity to share
enthusiasm and interests with like-minded people. You can exchange
information about local resources such as ﬁlms, twinning associations or
conversation groups. Other students can act as an additional source of help
and advice outside scheduled sessions, creating a sense of solidarity. They
can also give you information about classes you have missed if you cannot
contact your tutor. This mutual support can take the form of occasional
contacts or more regular study group sessions.
Study buddies and groups
As already explained, studying together provides an opportunity to share
skills, generate new ideas and learn from one another. Chapter 3, ‘Studying
independently’, outlined the ways in which working with a study buddy
can enhance your language learning, particularly when you are learning
independently or feel that you are not able to interact easily with other
speakers of the language. Speaking a language is a social activity so it makes
sense to create practice opportunities in a social environment. The
following advice focuses on self-help study groups, but applies equally to
work with an individual partner.
The success of a study group session depends on its content. Just as you
would hope to come out of a class feeling enlightened, stimulated and
motivated, you should leave your study session with a feeling of achievement which does not, of course, prevent you from enjoying yourself as well.
It is worth spending some time discussing the content of your meetings and
the activities you will include.
What can you do in a study group session?
• Work on activities that extend what you did in your class or new
exercises that practise what you are currently studying. Your tutor
should be able to help with ideas.
• Repeat activities from the course material, particularly those which are
open-ended and do not have a set answer, for example activities which
ask you to describe your locality or give your opinion about an issue. If
the original activity was to be done in writing, take the opportunity to
discuss it instead.

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Success with Languages
• Discuss the topic of your next assignment. There is nothing wrong with
sharing ideas, before you prepare your own work. You can gain a lot
from this process. It can help you to consider other points of view, to
debate and argue your own case in the target language. Of course, unless
the assignment is specifically intended to be a collaborative project,
your actual submission must be your own individual effort. There are
usually heavy penalties for presenting work which is not entirely your
own.
• Watch a video of the news in a country where your target language is
spoken. See Chapter 7 for ideas on how to work with recorded material.
• Organize a book club which would meet on a regular basis to discuss a
book you have read. You could ask your tutor to recommend suitable
books.
• Invite guest speakers of the language to talk to your group. You may
know of students from other countries, for instance, who would
welcome the chance to meet more local people.
Setting up a study group
Setting up a study group requires organization, and the most successful
groups often have one person who takes responsibility for making the
arrangements. Consider the following points:
• Find a place convenient for all those involved. If you cannot find a
room in your college or university, you could meet in a café, community
centre or group member’s home. Hotel foyers often have quiet places
open to non-residents. Your local library may be able to help. Look for
a venue which is accessible to all group members, e.g. has wheelchair
access.
• Keep to the same time and day for each session; people are less likely
to forget the arrangement.
• Consider telephone or online conferences if travel is a problem. These
are fairly easy to organize. Three-way telephone conferences are
available to private telephone users. Telephone companies and some
community organizations can facilitate larger conferences. You can ﬁnd
examples of types of CMC (Computer-Mediated Communication) in
Chapter 8.
• Agree ways of keeping in touch with each other.
The more care taken over the initial arrangements, the easier it will be to
maintain the group’s momentum.

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Setting up a study group
• Agree on content and activities. Ask your tutor for help if
necessary.
• Find a suitable venue or convenient way to meet.
• Agree on a particular time and day and how often to meet.
• Ensure that all members are easily contactable.
MAKING THE MOST OF SUPPORT FROM FRIENDS AND
FAMILY
Chapter 2 points out the potential impact of your studies on your friends
and family. You need to plan frequent study sessions and maximize
opportunities to hear and practise the language. This is much easier with
the support of your friends and family. They may be able to help in a variety
of ways.
Task 10.3 Support from friends and family
Think of the friends and family members who could help your language learning
and list the kind of support they could give you.
Comment
There are plenty of possibilities. For example, they may:
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
᭿
help you to clarify and extend your ideas by discussing a particular topic
with you in your mother tongue;
offer you encouragement when you need it;
be happy to join you at a cinema to see a target language ﬁlm (providing
there are subtitles for them) or record programmes on video for you;
be able to offer tips and/or practice if you have friends who are also studying
the language or have done so in the past;
look out for opportunities for you to practise or hear the language.

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MAKING THE MOST OF SUPPORT IN THE WORKPLACE
Beneﬁts of languages in the workplace
Beneﬁts to the company
Companies who have contacts with suppliers, partners or clients abroad
beneﬁt from having employees with skills in the language spoken in the
countries where these are based. First of all, foreign companies appreciate
it when some effort is made to speak their language. Furthermore, awareness of the culture of the country enhances communication between the
various partners. By offering you help and support in your language
learning, your company will be able to interact more efﬁciently with their
overseas associates.
Beneﬁts to yourself
If you are an employee, learning a relevant language may improve your
career prospects. You may be promoted to a post where you are in daily
contact with the language you are learning. The ﬁrst time you are asked to
take a telephone call in the language may be daunting and may make you
feel exposed. However, if you prepare what you want to say to obtain the
information you need, it should be much easier and become more natural.
You will have opportunities to learn new expressions and to make informal
checks on your linguistic performance. Moreover, many of the new skills
you acquire will be transferable to other areas of your work.
Support from employer
How can your employer support you in your language studies?
• By funding your study if you can demonstrate beneﬁt to the company.
If you cannot obtain full funding, you may be able to negotiate partfunding. In some cases, loans may be available.
• By providing a quiet place for you to study at lunchtime, especially if
the company has training rooms which may be fitted with VCRs,
CD/DVD players or computers. This can help you keep to your study
plan.
• By allowing you to take some time off to study for exams. It will be much
easier to do so away from the distractions of work.
• By providing opportunities for work-based assessment and accreditation.
Most companies value employees who want to develop their skills and will
be happy to offer help and support. It is worth discussing this with your
employer.

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Support from work colleagues
You may want to encourage some of your colleagues to join you. They may
decide to study with you or simply practise their existing language skills
with you. You can also try to maximize opportunities to use the language
with your opposite numbers in companies overseas. Your work colleagues
may also provide help and encouragement.
Task 10.4 Support from your employer
If you are an employee, what opportunities are there for you to use your target
language in the workplace?
What support is your employer able to offer?
Support from careers advice services
If no opportunities to use your language skills exist within your company,
you may want to consider other career paths. Services such as Learndirect
provide advice on jobs and careers as well as courses and information
on possible funding for learning:
http://www.learndirect-advice.co.uk
If you have a high level of competence in your target language,
http://www. prospects.ac.uk provides information on a wide range of jobs
available to people ﬂuent in another language.
MAKING THE MOST OF SUPPORT FROM OTHER SPEAKERS
OF THE LANGUAGE
Reasons for wanting to learn a language are varied, but being able to
interact with people who speak this language will probably feature high on
your list. You might like to try the following suggestions.
TANDEM learning
Chapter 1, ‘Opportunities and providers’, introduces the TANDEM
network and this approach is also referred to in other chapters. Some
language learning institutions organize TANDEM learning schemes for
their students. These schemes pair you with a speaker of your target
language who is studying your ﬁrst language and living in your country. You
are likely to be provided with guidelines to help you establish a good
learning relationship, but here are some points to consider:

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Success with Languages
• Agree which language to use and when. This depends on the level and
ability of each language learner. One approach is to use both languages
equally but this may be impractical if the levels are very different. If
there is no clear agreement, one language may dominate, defeating the
purpose of the scheme.
• Think about how you want to deal with error correction. Review the
comments in the section ‘Practising your oral skills’ in this chapter and
the likely negative effects of constant correction. You may ﬁnd it more
helpful to ask your partner to summarize some key points for you at
the end of your conversation, starting with your successes. What you
talk about in the sessions is up to you. Chapter 3, Task 3.3, gives some
suggestions. Working with a speaker of your target language in this way
can give you real insight into their culture and vice versa.
Penfriends or email TANDEM partners
Other organizations can put you in touch with a TANDEM partner or
penfriend abroad. Your institution or language adviser may be able to give
you details of such organizations. Alternatively, you can ﬁnd information
about the International TANDEM Network at http://www.slf.rub.de (see
Chapter 1, ‘Opportunities and providers’).
Communicating by letter or using CMC, for example, email or text chat
gives you the opportunity to practise your writing skills. If you use CMC,
the language you produce is likely to be closer to the spoken form than to
formal writing. Your messages are likely to be shorter and more spontaneous
than a letter to a penfriend. If you communicate by letter, you can practise
structuring your writing and decide on the content which puts you in
control of what you write, as opposed to when you write assignments.
A penfriend or TANDEM partner allows you to have regular contact
with people who use your target language daily, and who can provide you
with more information about a country in which it is spoken. Your partner
may also be willing to correct your mistakes and may ask you for clariﬁcation if what you say is not conveyed clearly – an opportunity for even
more practice!
Local resident speakers of the language
Local resident speakers of your target language may be happy to help you
practise your oral skills as an opportunity to speak their own language,
especially if they are homesick. The advice in Chapter 6, ‘Interacting with
others’, will help you get the most out of such conversations. Some speakers
may offer to give you extra tuition. Remember that they are not necessarily
teachers and cannot be expected to have the same sort of expertise as your
tutor. What they can offer is the opportunity to hear other accents, to ﬁnd
out about certain areas of a country, ‘local’ customs or dialects, and to learn
new words or expressions or try out structures and phrases learned. Some

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communities organize events to foster integration of new residents. Your
library should have details of such events.
Visiting the country
Going to a country where the language is spoken is a wonderful way to
increase your motivation and can renew your interest and enthusiasm in
the language. You will have the opportunity to pick up resources such as
magazines or advertisements and perhaps watch television or listen to the
radio. Chapter 7 suggests many ways to use such real-life material and also
points out that it is up to you to make a special effort to interact with local
people when on holiday in a country where the language is spoken and not
limit yourself to conversations in shops. To ensure total immersion in the
language, you could consider staying with a family, enrolling on an
intensive course at a language school or ﬁnding work there.
Staying with a family
Some organizations specialize in ﬁnding families willing to welcome foreign
guests or exchange partners. You will be expected to write to your hosts
before travelling. To beneﬁt fully from your visit, be ready to adapt to a
new routine. In most cases you will be expected to live as one of the family,
rather than being entertained by them. Try to ﬁnd out about the place you
will be staying in before you plan any activities. Instead of using organizations, you may decide to ask friends or your tandem partner/penfriend to
help you ﬁnd suitable hosts.
Language schools
Many language schools offer intensive residential courses in countries
where the target language is spoken. You will be able to concentrate on
your language studies and beneﬁt from total immersion as well. You will
ﬁnd your ﬂuency improves and this will sustain your motivation when you
get back home. Before choosing a course, check the credentials of the
organization you have selected as well as the nature of the programme of
studies they offer.
Working abroad
The idea of working abroad may be challenging, but it will provide you
with some of the best opportunities to develop your language skills,
particularly if the work involves plenty of contact with local people. Your
work may involve staying in a country where the language is spoken with
support from your employer. Otherwise, if you are learning a European
language, you may find opportunities through one of the programmes
within Socrates, a European education programme which offers grants in
certain circumstances for study, teaching, work placements or training
courses in another European country: http://www2britishcouncil.org/
socrates

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The British Council also provides information on opportunities for
training and work experience in other countries: http://www.britcoun.org/
learning-international-experience.htm
PUTTING YOUR LEARNING INTO PRACTICE
Learning a language opens a gateway to exciting opportunities to learn
about others. The richness of that experience is not only dependent
on your command of the language, but also on your knowledge and
understanding of the other culture.
Differences between your own culture and that of the speakers of the
language you are learning may seem obvious, but beware of rushing to
conclusions, whether positive or negative, based on lack of knowledge or
misinterpretation. Different customs are usually a reaction to local conditions. Understanding the cultural patterns represented by the language you
are learning requires practice as well as a genuine interest in discovering
what makes that particular culture what it is. You will find evidence
of these patterns in the people, their history, their art, their food, their
customs, their values, in every aspect of their lives. Intercultural understanding does not mean ignoring or giving up your own cultural values and
beliefs, but it does require a conscious effort on your part to appreciate those
of the other culture and be prepared to modify your original attitudes if
appropriate.
The ﬁrst encounter with another culture is often described as ‘culture
shock’. It is possible that after the initial excitement, you may feel
disappointed because things are not as you imagined. However, taking the
opportunity to discover and analyse what lies behind particular types of
behaviour, and to reflect on your experience will gradually help you to
understand the differences, respect them and feel comfortable with them.
You will be in a better position to enjoy the new environment and all the
opportunities it offers for practising your language skills.
Unlike many other subjects, language learning is more than an academic
exercise, it is a social activity. The aim of language learning is to interact
with other people whether in person, through books and other texts or
through the Web. Although you need quiet time on your own to study and
reﬂect on your progress, you can beneﬁt from contact with others and the
support they provide for your learning. Being able to communicate
effectively with speakers of another language opens doors to new worlds in
a journey of discovery.
Bon voyage!

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Summary of key points
• Contact your tutor about questions or concerns.
• Make your questions as precise as possible, check your understanding of explanations and put the points into practice as soon
as you can.
• Contact a language adviser for guidance on appropriate resources
in a self-access centre.
• Working with a study buddy or a self-help study group is a very
effective way of increasing practice opportunities and maintaining
motivation.
• Friends and family can support your language learning in a variety
of ways.
• Employers and work colleagues can provide practical support and
encouragement.
• You can make contact with speakers of your target language both
locally, e.g. through TANDEM learning schemes, and by visiting
a country where the language is spoken, e.g. staying with a family,
taking a course or working.
• Interacting with speakers of your target language allows you to
explore a whole new world and gain fresh perspectives on your
own.

242.
Glossary
Talking about language learning involves, as it does with most subjects,
the use of some technical terms. This glossary provides a list of terms which
appear in the book. There is no need to read them ﬁrst, but you may ﬁnd
it useful to refer to the glossary from time to time as you read individual
chapters.
Active and passive vocabulary A distinction is made between:
• your passive vocabulary: the words and expressions that you may
recognize but do not actually use, and
• your active vocabulary: words and expressions which you as a learner
produce regularly.
Language learners usually ﬁnd that their passive vocabulary is far larger
than their active vocabulary.
Alliteration Words beginning with the same sound to produce a particular
effect, e.g. sizzling sausages or busy bees buzzing.
Cloze texts or exercises Texts or exercises where certain words or phrases
have been blanked out. Learners fill in the blanks by reading the
surrounding text in order to work out what is missing. The gaps may be
a particular type of word, for example all the verbs in the text or words
related to a speciﬁc topic such as the weather, or they may be random,
for example where every tenth word has been blanked out.
Cognates Words that are the same or similar in your language and the
language you are learning and have the same or similar meaning. For
example, begin (English) and beginnen (German) or respond/reply
(English) and responder (Spanish) or répondre (French).
Collocations Words that often occur together in a particular order, such
as chalk and cheese; an almighty crash; pitch black; a deep breath.
Compensation strategies Strategies which you can use in advance or on
the spot in order to avoid potential difﬁculties in communication. They
are particularly useful in unpredictable situations. Examples include:

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preparing for a situation by checking the vocabulary for topics which
are likely to come up in conversation; paraphrasing what you want to
say if you can’t think of a speciﬁc word or asking the name of a particular
item or how to describe an activity in the target language.
Connotations Cultural and social associations conjured up by particular
words and phrases, for example the images that come to mind for English
speakers if they hear the word school or high street. Connotations differ
between languages and between groups of language speakers as they
reflect the cultural and social life of the countries and communities
where the target language is spoken.
Corpora Large collections of texts or transcriptions of spoken material in
a specific language. These illustrate how target language speakers
actually use the language in a variety of situations. They can be analysed
using a software tool known as a concordancer in order to identify
regular patterns of language use, for example how people greet each
other on formal occasions or the language used by members of particular
professions in their work.
Discourse markers Words or phrases used to structure language, e.g.
sequences: ﬁrst of, all, then, next, ﬁnally. You will ﬁnd further examples
in Chapters 5 and 6.
Emoticons During online communication, icons called emoticons, like
a smiley s or sad ß face, are sometimes used. These provide some indication of the contributor’s feelings in place of the non-verbal signals
(e.g. smiling, frowning) that characterize face-to-face communication.
Fillers The term used for the exclamations, words or phrases used in any
language to plug gaps, indicate hesitation or gain thinking time.
Examples in English include: erm . . .; well . . .; like . . .; that’s an interesting question . . .; y’know . . .; absolutely . . .; I’m not sure, but . . .; to
be honest . . .; I don’t know . . .; yes, I think so; really? surely not!
Grammar Grammar classifies words into categories (e.g. nouns, verbs,
adjectives). Grammar is also the name given to the patterns followed
by the smaller units of language (e.g. words) as they combine to form
larger units (e.g. sentences). It distinguishes between the role they play,
in relation to one another, within a sentence (e.g. subject, verb, object).
Grammar also describes the systematic ways in which words change their
form when combined with other words to form larger units. The way in
which grammar structures the language also has an impact on meaning.
If you are unsure of the meaning of grammatical terms used in your
language course, dictionary or in this book, consult one of the books
available which explain grammatical terms, for example the series
English Grammar for Students of . . . published by Hodder Education.
Intonation The term used to describe the way a speaker’s voice rises and
falls, in other words, the ‘music’ of the language. Intonation patterns
vary between languages so it is important to listen out for and copy the
patterns in the language you are learning rather than simply transferring

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the patterns from your own language, so that you can be easily understood. Intonation patterns can indicate emotions and attitudes such as
anger, interest or impatience. They can provide information on the
grammatical structure of speech, e.g. differentiating a statement You’re
coming from a question You’re coming? They can also be used to give
prominence to speciﬁc points by stressing certain words, e.g. I didn’t say
it was wrong (I think it might be right) and I didn’t say it was wrong
(someone else did).
Metaphors Figures of speech where a word or phrase is applied to a person,
object or action which it could not literally apply to, e.g. You are my
sunshine.
Netiquette Online communication has its own conventions or etiquette,
known as netiquette. The conventions vary between cultures, for
example they may cover the use of formal and informal language (in
French: tu or vous?) as well as more technical aspects such as avoiding
capitals (which is the equivalent of shouting).
Onomatopoeia Words used to convey sounds or other speciﬁc effects, e.g.
Bang! Woosh! Cockadoodledoo!
Productive skills Speaking and writing are often called productive skills
because they involve producing language in the spoken or written form.
Receptive skills Reading and listening are often referred to as receptive
skills because they involve receiving written or spoken messages from
others, rather than producing spoken or written language.
Register This refers to different styles of language which are used
according to the circumstances in which people ﬁnd themselves. The
differences depend on a number of factors:
• the mode of language use, i.e. whether written or spoken. The
conventions used in these two modes vary. For example, the ending
of a telephone call differs from that of a letter.
• the relationship between the participants, which may be formal or
informal. For example, the language used in an email to a friend
would be informal and personal compared with the more formal
language found in a letter of application for a job, or an essay written
for an exam.
• the subject matter. For example, the language used in scientific
papers is different from that used in a tabloid newspaper or a recipe
book.
Features of style and register differ across languages and cultures and it
may not be appropriate to adopt conventions from your own language
when communicating in your target language.
Reported speech This is used to report or relate what someone has said,
e.g. He said he was cold. This reports his actual words (direct speech):
‘I’m cold’.
Rhetorical devices These are used to make language more persuasive or

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to engage the audience by making the communication more lively or
interesting. Examples of some of the most common devices include:
• using evocative vocabulary and sound patterns;
• repetition;
• rhetorical questions, e.g. to end a presentation or an article in order
to leave the audience with a question in their mind, such as: But at
what cost? When will we know for sure? Is this really what we want for
our children’s children?
You will ﬁnd further explanations and examples in Chapter 6, ‘Style and
register’.
Self-access centres Many institutions have self-access or ‘drop-in’
facilities where language learners can work on speciﬁc skills. Resources
usually include reading and audio material with accompanying notes,
exercises and answer keys, access to target language TV channels by
satellite or to recorded programmes and computer-based or online
learning resources. Self-access centres offer learners ﬂexibility in terms
of time and learning content. Some employ a learning adviser to give
support and advice on learning methods and strategies.
Similes Figures of speech comparing one thing with something else, used
to make descriptions more vivid, e.g. as pretty as a picture.
Stress The emphasis placed on different parts of words or phrases in
spoken language is referred to as stress, and the patterns of stress give a
language its rhythm. For example, in English, the following underlined
parts of these words are stressed: emphasis, different, patterns, altered,
distorted, understanding. In English, the stress tends to be placed on the
ﬁrst syllable of nouns or compound nouns and English speakers may be
tempted to transfer this pattern to their target language. However,
patterns differ from one language to another and if they are distorted or
altered by using the patterns from another language, it can make
understanding difﬁcult.
Syllable A unit of pronunciation which has one vowel sound and forms
the whole or part of a word, e.g. there are two syllables in water and three
in umbrella, but only one in house.
Thesaurus A book or online resource that lists words with similar
meanings (synonyms) in groups, together with related concepts.